Center for Victims of Torture
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
In the U.S., torture has often been misrepresented as an effective means of gathering useful intelligence from terrorists or other criminals. Research has shown this to be untrue, and yet torture remains one of the most pervasive global human rights abuses. Torture is most often employed by repressive governments, paramilitary forces, or extremists to instill fear and gain control over populations. Torture often has nothing to do with gathering intelligence; instead it seeks to destroy groups of people, dismantle political opposition, repress rights, and silence voices. CVT’s research staff conducted a meta-analysis on the prevalence of torture among refugees and our staff determined that roughly 44% of refugees in the United States are torture survivors. Survivors of torture endure physical injuries such as chronic pain in muscles and joints, recurring headaches, and reduced mobility, as well as prolonged psychological illnesses such as severe depression and PTSD. For many survivors
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
CVT’s Model of Care & Healing for Survivors in the United States
In the United States, the Client Services Program offers holistic rehabilitative care to survivors of torture, primarily refugees and asylum seekers. We developed an interdisciplinary model of care that heals the wounds of torture by using: mental health therapy to heal the mind, medical care to rebuild the body, and case management to ensure access to community resources such as housing, food, security, and legal services. Rehabilitative care at CVT extends to more than just the individual client. Family members are encouraged to participate in family sessions, and clinicians may work individually with family members to receive community referrals or consultations with pediatricians or schools.
At CVT each client is paired with a “healing team” which starts with a mental health clinician (psychotherapist) and a social worker. With the help of professional interpreters, CVT therapists help clients understand their trauma and rebuild their ability to trust. Social workers provide case management, which helps clients satisfy their daily needs and live a meaningful life. This may include food, clothing, housing, transportation, and safety. After a client’s basic needs are met, social workers will then help clients regain a sense of community. Additional services can include medical care coordination, psychiatric services, and massage therapy, or other body work therapies.
In Minnesota, there are three direct care programs:
1. The Saint Paul Healing Center is CVT’s oldest rehabilitative program and largest domestic program. A key component of services at SPHC is coordination with asylum attorneys, who are considered a member of the healing team. Clinicians at the SPHC determine eligibility for care based on the US and UN definition of torture, a legal statute.
2. Healing Hearts embeds our rehabilitative care model in two primary care clinics in St. Paul that serve refugee communities. The program originally began as a randomized controlled research study which found that combining survivors’ care as usual with CVT’s interdisciplinary model of care significantly decreased survivors’ mental health symptoms. Additionally the study found an overall increase in CVT clients’ improved social circumstances and ability to function in American society. Once the research ended in 2018, the project transitioned to a pure direct care program and continues to serve over 50 refugee clients and 130 family members. Each of the two clinics serve clients through team-based interdisciplinary behavioral health care (psychotherapy and social work), coordinated medical care with clinic doctors, parenting classes, and community capacity development. Healing Hearts clients do not need to meet the US or UN definition of torture, but they must have a diagnosis of Major Depression, be a patient at one of the two primary care clinics, and be from a country or region affected by torture.
3. Saint Cloud Healing Center is CVT’s newest rehabilitative program which opened in 2018 to satisfy the needs of the Somali refugee and asylee population in the St. Cloud community through three interconnected initiatives: 1) parenting classes that assist Somali refugee parents to navigate and access systems of care, understand their own post-trauma symptoms, and better parent in a new culture; 2) psychotherapy to address post-trauma symptoms; (3) Workforce development to support 1-2 Somali American staff members in becoming mental health practitioners and/or advancing in their licensure.
In 2016, CVT opened a healing center for survivors of torture in Atlanta, Georgia. Similar to our Minnesota programs, CVT Atlanta uses a holistic model of care that incorporates psychotherapy, clinical case management and professional interpretation to address the unique needs of clients. We also work to preserve the rights of refugees and asylum seekers in the state of Georgia by engaging in policy advocacy, fund development, and community relations. In 2018, CVT provided mental health care and social work case management services to 59 individual survivors and over 150 of their family members.
Healing Survivors Internationally
We provide mental health and, where possible, physiotherapy care to survivors of torture and war in areas of the world where few mental health resources are available. We currently work in Dadaab, Kakuma and Nairobi, Kenya, Amman, Jordan, Tigray and Gambella, Ethiopia, and Gulu and Bidi Bidi, Uganda. All of CVT’s clients are individuals who were forced to leave their homes because of war or various human rights violations. Others were forced to flee because they faced persecution and violence due to their culture, ethnicity, political opinions, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, and/or gender identity. CVT provides counseling and community mental health activities to adults and children who suffered torture and war trauma. Most survivors receive small group counseling. These small groups meet weekly for ten weeks, and depending on the nature of the trauma, might be grouped together based on similar experiences or cultural characteristics such as age and gender. Groups counseling can be a highly effective method of treatment - survivors learn they are not alone in their experiences and they can rebuild a community with the other group members. Survivors with severe trauma symptoms receive private individual counseling, with many joining small group counseling when they are able. In Jordan and Nairobi, we provide physical therapy to help survivors decrease the pain and disability of torture.
In addition to providing direct mental health services, CVT trains members of the community and refugee population to be skilled group counselors, physical therapists, advocates, educators and trainers. Our goal is to develop mental health and physiotherapy resources where none existed before. We provide ongoing education, training, and supervised experience from mental health counselors or physical therapists. By training local staff, these newly trained professionals will be able to serve their communities long into the future, even if CVT programs end.
Capacity Development & Training Programs
1) The New Tactics Program is a training and capacity development initiative that uses mentoring and online training tools to reach human rights activists around the world, regardless of human rights focus or language. New Tactics trainings have been held in over 20 countries.
2) The U.S. National Capacity Building Program, in partnership with the Harvard Program for Refugee Trauma, organizes training and technical assistance for U.S. based torture rehabilitation centers to develop clinical skills and organizational development strategies. These trainings focus on fundraising, strategic planning, evaluation and reporting, sustainability, and more.
3) Partners in Trauma Healing (PATH) aims to strengthen the capacity of international torture survivor centers and programs to help international treatment centers improve their monitoring and evaluation, enhance their direct care programs, and develop sustainable hiring and fundraising skills.
Policy & Advocacy Programs
To fulfill our mission and end torture worldwide, CVT advocates at the national level to:
• maintain or increase funding for torture rehabilitation treatment,
• preserve access to asylum and refugee resettlement for survivors, and
• ensure humane detention, interrogation, and prisoner treatment in U.S. counterterrorism operations.
CVT’s reputation for nonpartisanship has been carefully built over the last thirty years. In order to accomplish our policy goals, CVT develops reports, expert testimony, position statements, and social media campaigns.
Research & Evaluation
Research and evaluation are an important component of CVT’s work. We are considered one of the most important sources of new information and innovative programming for rehabilitative torture treatment. CVT shares what it has learned through training and assistance to human rights organizations and treatment centers.
In all of our direct care programs, a client’s mental health and social functioning are evaluated and measured. When clients begin at CVT therapists evaluate their post-trauma symptoms in order to establish a baseline. In U.S. based programs, clients are evaluated every three months until the end of treatment, and internationally, clients are evaluated at intake, after three months, and after six and twelve months. CVT mental health therapists and social workers use a series of questions and checklists to measure:
• a decrease in mental health symptoms such as depression, anxiety, and PTSD, and
• an increase in social functioning such as access to basic needs, social support, sense of community and friends, legal status, joining a place of worship, and learning English or starting school.
Where we work
External reviews
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of overall donors
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Other - describing something else
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of organizational partners
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Other - describing something else
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
41 organization partners in the U.S. and 10 international partners
Number of groups/individuals benefiting from tools/resources/education materials provided
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Ethnic and racial groups, Women and girls, LGBTQ people, Heterosexuals, Men and boys
Related Program
CVT’s Model of Care & Healing for Survivors in the United States
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Includes organizations and individuals reached through various training activities
Number of clients served
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Includes individual survivors of torture and their family members
Hours of volunteer service
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Other - describing something else
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of clients who report general satisfaction with their services
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
100 percent of clients report satisfaction with CVT services and the care they received from CVT
Number of clients who show a measurable decrease in PTSD symptoms
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Outcome - describing the effects on people or issues
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Context Notes
80 percent of clients saw significant improvement in post-trauma symptoms after 3 months of treatment
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
The mission of CVT is to heal the wounds of torture on individuals, their families and their communities and to end torture worldwide. Across the world CVT empowers survivors of torture to heal from the violence that destroyed their lives. The full scope of CVT’s work includes:
• therapeutic care for torture survivors in the United States, Africa, and the Middle East;
• nonpartisan human rights advocacy to end torture and advance human rights;
• technical assistance and training for human rights activists and over 50 torture survivor centers in the United States and around the world; and
• research and evaluation to ensure excellent service delivery and improve the field of torture rehabilitation as a whole.
By extending rehabilitative care to survivors, building the capacity of institutions and individuals and advocating against torture and in support of human rights, CVT works toward a future in which torture ceases to exist and its survivors have hope for a new life.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
CVT heals the wounds of torture with mental health therapy, physical therapy, and social work case management. All of CVT programs follow the same model of care, which includes:
• Clients come to CVT from a range of referral sources including family or community members, churches, mosques, doctors and nurses, immigration and asylum attorneys, and resettlement organizations.
• Clients are initially tested and evaluated for post-trauma symptoms, such as anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and somatic symptoms.
• CVT clinicians document all physiological and physical wounds of torture. In the U.S., this information can be used as supporting asylum documents.
• Clients are assessed on their overall functioning. Depending on the setting, this includes their access to food and housing, employment and work permits, community and religious involvement, and making friends through social outings.
• Domestically, clients are paired with a psychotherapist for mental health treatment and a social worker for case management and resources. Depending on the location contexts, physical therapists or therapeutic body workers are available to manage and treat chronic pain and mobility.
• Clients are reassessed every three months, up to one year, on their mental, physical, and social health progress.
CVT is able to significantly advance our programming because our work is informed and supported by four pillars: client services, research and evaluation, capacity development, and advocacy. Each of the four pillars are interconnected and learn from one another to propel our work forward and better serve those who have experienced torture and war trauma around the world .
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Through our 38 year history, CVT has developed a depth of knowledge, experience, and credibility in providing holistic, rehabilitative care by combining mental health services, physical therapy, medical care, and social work case management. The clinical staff are highly trained and experts in their fields. CVT has developed treatment models which are highly effective and transform lives Indeed, CVT not only provides direct care, but also uses our expertise through robust training and capacity development programs to support the work of other torture rehabilitation centers in the United State and abroad.
Internationally, CVT has adapted its model of care to resource-scarce situations in refugee camps and urban centers in which refugees live. CVT gains trust quickly by training and deploying local people to serve as paraprofessional mental health counselors. We have been able to adapt our model of care, developed in St. Paul, MN, into group therapy models, thereby greatly expanding the number of people who receive care. Physical therapy is also a more prominent feature of our rehabilitative care outside of the US because it is less available in the developing world. Through these responsive adaptations, CVT is able to provide a range of mental health and medical services to individuals living in resource scarce environments or have limited access to care.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Accomplishments
In 2022, the Center for Victims of Torture:
• served approximately 14,000 survivors of torture and their family members worldwide through interventions, referrals and healing care services;
• provided care for 393 survivors of torture and 500 of their family members in the United States.
• provided direct care:
o in Ethiopia to 680 clients and 3,650 family members;
o in Kenya to 190 clients and 608 family members;
o in Uganda to 172 clients and 1,108 family members; and
o in Jordan to 1,034 clients and 4,985 family members.
When clients arrive at CVT’s Saint Paul Healing Center, 83% of CVT clients are diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and 79% have Depressive Disorder. However after three months of treatment, 89% of clients in 2022 had statistically significant improvements in their post-trauma symptoms.
Over the years CVT has grown substantially and changed in several important ways. In 1992 the organization opened an advocacy office in Washington, DC and began to leverage the knowledge and credibility derived from caring for individual survivors into effective policy advocacy that attracted support from across the political spectrum. In 1993 CVT wrote, with then-Senator Dave Durenberger (R-MN) the Torture Victims Relief Act; this legislation, which was passed by the U.S. Congress in 1998, authorizes U.S. Government support for torture survivor rehabilitation in countries around the world through appropriations to the U.N. Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture, the U.S. Agency for International Development, and the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement. Because of CVT's ongoing appropriations advocacy, the United States is the largest financial supporter of torture survivor rehabilitation in the world. CVT's policy advocacy has also played a key role in the creation of a bipartisan consensus against the use of torture in the United States Congress.
In 1999, at the invitation of (and with funding from) the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, CVT launched its first healing project outside the United States. This project, which worked with Sierra Leonean refugee torture survivors in Guinea, West Africa, established the foundation of a healing approach with two key components that has come to define CVT's guiding philosophy for project design: working in close partnership with other organizations and service providers; and hiring, training, mentoring and supervising national staff in order to develop sustainable local capacity.
CVT has subsequently provided rehabilitative care, with related training, mentoring and supervision, in the following countries: Sierra Leone (2002-2010); Liberia (2005-2009); Democratic Republic of Congo (2006-2012); Jordan (2008-present); Kenya (2010-present); Ethiopia (2013-present); Iraq (2019-present); and Uganda (2015-present). In the U.S., CVT works in Minnesota, Georgia (since 2016), and Arizona (since 2021).
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
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Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
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Center for Victims of Torture
Board of directorsas of 05/23/2023
Charles Henry
Professor Emeritus, University of California at Berkeley
Term: 2022 - 2025
Kadra Abdi
Noura Aljizawa
Julia Classen
Gloria Contreras Edin
Karen Erickson
Robert Flynn
Sunanda Ghosh
Lennon Mhishi
Valerian Moeller
Savita Pawnday
Diego Pina Lopez
Madge Thomas
Mary Tjosvold
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
No data
Gender identity
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Transgender Identity
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Sexual orientation
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Disability
No data