United National Indian Tribal Youth (UNITY) has been awarded an $850,000 grant from the Department of Justice for a new leadership initiative.

The four-year grant from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention will enable UNITY to start the National Intertribal Youth Leadership Development Initiative. American Indian and Alaska Native youth will receive training in order to carry out projects in their own communities.

“The Initiative provides welcome resources that will help make it possible for UNITY to continue the important work that it has performed for the past 37 years. The UNITY staff, members of the Council of Trustees, and the youth leaders of the National UNITY Council are looking forward to working with the OJJDP staff and its team of consultants and trainers to provide our Native American youth with the added opportunities for personal development the Initiative makes possible," Mary Kim Titla, UNITY's executive director, said in a press release.

A schedule for the new initiative is expected to be announced in early 2014.