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PHILANTHROPY NEWS DIGEST
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| Name: | The Center for Victims of Torture |
| Founded: | 1985 |
| Executive Director: | Douglas A. Johnson, MPPH |
| Address: | 717 East River Road, Minneapolis, MN 55455 |
| Phone: | 612.626.1400 |
| E-mail: | cvt@cvt.org |
| URL: | http://www.cvt.org |
| Mission: | To heal the wounds of government-inflicted torture on individuals, their families, and their communities. |
| Background: | The Center was founded in 1985 to provide direct care to survivors of politically motivated torture as well as to members of their families. In the years since, CVT has pioneered a unique, comprehensive assessment and care program and has expanded its work to include research, training, and public policy initiatives designed to create new resources for torture survivors worldwide. |
| Current Programs: | CVT's Client Care program provides direct care to victims of government-sponsored torture and to members of their families.
The Research program conducts ongoing studies into the long-term effects of torture and effective care and rehabilitation models. The organization's Training program provides professional instruction to health care, human service, education, resettlement, and immigration professionals. The Public Policy program contributes to the prevention and ultimate elimination of torture through public education campaigns, public policy initiatives, and cooperative efforts with national and international human rights, religious, labor, business, and civic organizations. |
| Recent Successes: | In October 1998, Congress adopted the Torture Victims Relief Act (PL 105-320). The legislation, which was introduced in 1994 by former Senator David Durenberger (R-MN) and later co-sponsored by Senators Rod Grams (R-MN) and Paul Wellstone (D-MN) and Representatives Christorpher Smith (R-NJ) and Tom Lantos (D-CA), was signed into law by President Clinton on October 30, 1998. The bill authorized $7.5 million for domestic treatment centers, $7.5. million for foreign centers, and $3 million for U.S. contributions to the U.N. Voluntary Fund for Victims of Torture.
In June 1999, Reps. Smith and Lantos introduced the Torture Victims Relief Reauthorization Act (HR 2367) on the House floor. The bill, which was again championed in the Senate by Senators Grams and Wellstone, increased the authorizations of the original bill to $10 million for domestic treatment centers, $10 million for foreign centers, and $5 million for U.S. contributions to the UN fund, and extended those authorizations for fiscal years 2001, 2002, and 2003. More recently, the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration authorized the Center to develop a program to provide care for refugees from military conflicts in Sierra Leone and Liberia. The refugees are currently living in camps and settlements throughout the prefectures of Gueckedou and Kissidougou, in the West African country of Guinea. With the consent of the Guinean government, the project provides a range of mental health services, including community meetings, group therapy, and therapy for individuals and their immediate families. In addition, the project provides paraprofessional training for community members, enabling them to assist in the care of their neighbors. |
| Web Site: | CVT's Web site provides a good deal of information about the organization and its activities, including a copy of the organization's 1998 annual report and 990, a statistical portrait of the clients it acquired in 1999, and a report on public policy devlopments in the field. Visitors to the site can also fill out a Directory of Resources for Survivors of Torture form and can make an online donation. |
| Funding Needs: | CVT relies on contributions and grants for more than half its $3.2 million annual operating budget. Two of the Center's programs are in particular need of support: its intensive clinical services program, which helps victims of torture heal from their wounds and regain productive lives, and its public education and policy program, which creates new resources to support healing and the development of strategies against torture.
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Every week, the NPO Spotlight in Philanthropy News Digest highlights the activities of a nonprofit organization; periodically, we shift the focus to an NGO in a country other than the U.S. Organizations are selected, using a range of criteria, to ensure the broadest possible representation of the nonprofit sector, both in the U.S. and abroad.
If you'd like to have your NPO or NGO appear in the "Spotlight," e-mail a profile of your organization (using the format above) to spotlight@fdncenter.org, or send a hard copy via snail mail to: NPO Spotlight(The editors of Philanthropy News Digest reserve the right to edit submissions.) |
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