INDIAN ISLAND – The Penobscot Indian Nation has received a nearly $500,000 federal grant for alcohol and substance abuse programs.

The three-year grant was presented to the Penobscot Nation Boys & Girls Club to assist in funding programs that provide activities for youth on the island and to provide services that are not now offered.

“It’s not just focusing on a specific program; it’s providing alternatives to substance abuse,” Carla Fearon, Boys & Girls Club unit director, said Tuesday.

Created in 2001, the Penobscot Nation Boys & Girls Club serves more than 100 juveniles between the ages of 10 and 17. The club provides youth on the island with a number of activities, including after-school homework help, cultural and social opportunities, and lessons in computer skills.

With a mission “to inspire and enable all youth, especially those from disadvantaged circumstances, to realize their full potential as productive, responsible, and caring citizens,” the club will use the grant money to enhance programs already in existence, create new programs, purchase supplies and possibly renovate portions of the club’s building.

“There are existing drug and alcohol problems,” Police Chief Seth Mitchell said. “It isn’t a big problem, but we realize it is a problem of the community.”

During the 2002-03 fiscal year, six of island’s 18 drug-related offenses involved juveniles.

In order to work on getting that number down, the Boys & Girls Club collaborated with the Indian Island Police Department in obtaining the grant. Some of the money will go toward increased use of the police K-9 unit to heighten efforts to decrease substance abuse violations, to pay for an officer to spend 10 hours a week at the club, and to hire a juvenile intake officer to work at the club.

“The great thing about collaborating on this grant is that Indian Island police have an interest in the future of the tribe, especially where the children are concerned,” Mitchell said. At least once a day an officer or the chief himself stops in to visit and sometimes eat lunch with children.

Funded by the grant, a police officer will spend 10 hours a week at the club in an informal setting, during which the officer will wear a polo shirt instead of the traditional uniform, which, Fearon said, sometimes can be intimidating to children.

“It’s just for the kids to meet the police officer and build a trusting relationship with them,” Fearon said.

By the end of the week, Fearon and Tribal Court Director George Tomer plan to have created a job description outlining the new juvenile intake officer’s job. The officer will work with first-time offenders and supervise them for a certain number of hours per week at the club.

“That’s one of our big missions is the kids, and we’ll do whatever is necessary to keep them safe and give them a safe place to be,” Mitchell said. “The main goal is just any way we can possibly interact with the children.”

The next step for Fearon and Mitchell is to assemble a project advisory team before beginning to implement new programs and improve those that already exist.

“[The grant] is going to allow the Boys & Girls Club to continue to offer quality programs for the youth,” Fearon said.

“To have it as safe as it was when I was a child would be nice,” Mitchell said.

To learn more about volunteering at or donating to the Penobscot Nation Boys & Girls Club, contact Carla Fearon at cfearon@penobscotnation.org.