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Get Involved

SURVIVORS is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. All donations are tax deductible to the fullest extent of the law. You can download the Federal IRS form here. Our current IRS 990 is publicly available at Guidestar.

Heal / Interpret / Volunteer / Advocate

Heal

SURVIVORS recruits mental health professionals, physicians, dentists, massage therapist, and acupuncturists on a volunteer or reduced fee schedule to help clients through their trauma.

“I have often thought I should pay to do this work. Through my experience with SURVIVORS, I have witnessed both the best and worst of humankind. The depth of the trauma I have heard recounted in stories is surpassed by the strength and spirit I see in each survivor. Each client I have worked with has stretched my heart in ways that no other work has.”

– SURVIVORS’ Therapist

To offer your professional services please contact our office at 619-278-2400. If you are a mental health professional, download and complete a contract psychotherapist application to e-mail.

All professional volunteers, once screened, must complete a W-9 form.

Interpret

Torture experiences are often referred to as being “too much for words” or “inexpressible.” The atrocities, and the lingering effects, are beyond the scope of the common vocabulary.

“Through interpretation I play my small role in relieving the intense distress of survivors of torture. I cannot grasp the motives for torture, but I can summon my experiences to help heal the effects of it.”

– Turkish Language Interpreter

SURVIVORS’ clients come to us from all over the geographic and linguistic map. They speak Acholi, Amharic, Chaldean (Aramaic), Dinka, Khmer, French, Russian, Somali, Spanish, and many other languages. Many survivors speak two, three, even four languages fluently, but they need the skills of a trained and compassionate interpreter to lend them a voice in English.

Word by word, story by story, our interpreters, clinicians, doctors, and staff are together re-building the hope and re-creating the community that survivors and their families need to feel whole and healed. Our interpreters allow the “unspeakable” to become a narrative, and that narrative to become a force against torture.

More than 45 languages are represented in SURVIVORS’ interpreter network. All interpreters receive an orientation to our organization, and a modest hourly payment for the professional work they do. This hourly fee helps to pay tribute to the importance and difficulty of the work.

If you are interested in become an interpreter for SURVIVORS, please fill out an application and contact SURVIVORS for more information. All interpreters must also complete a W-9 form, which can be found here.

Volunteer

SURVIVORS is a small nonprofit with a big mission, so volunteers are essential to our success. There are many opportunities if you would like to lend your time and skills to become part of our healing community. See our volunteer packet and download an application.

“While it is overwhelming to look at all the unjust in the world I am heartened by the work of SURVIVORS because I see good people making a significant difference, one smile at a time.”

– SURVIVORS’ Therapist

Please e-mail applications to us at SURVIVORS. Thank you for your interest.

Friendship Circle

Part of our rehabilitation program is the Friendship Circle, whereby our clinical staff match concerned San Diegans (Befrienders) with torture survivors (Friends). The goals of this project are to promote friendship and social support between torture survivors and members of the community, to minimize isolation, and to increase the functioning of torture survivors. We ask befrienders to make a commitment of 6-8 hours a month for six months. Knowledge of languages such as Arabic, Spanish, or Somali is helpful.

Read the story of one Befriender and e-mail Clinical Director DeeDee Gullo if you're interested in becoming a Befriender.

Volunteer DriverS

Volunteer drivers provide rides for SURVIVORS' clients who can't drive or lack the funds or ability to use public transportation. This program allows clients to keep essential appointments for counseling, medical care, and other services. Most of these appointments occur during weekday work hours. Volunteer drivers help clients feel comfortable by providing a reliable and friendly environment during their rides, and may sometimes assist or advocate for clients during an appointment.

Newsletter Folding Party

Throughout the year, SURVIVORS holds newsletter folding parties to prepare issues of "The Survivor" for mailing. Volunteers help stamp, seal and address newsletters. If you have a company, church group, service club, or other group that might be able to hold a small volunteer gathering then please e-mail us at SURVIVORS.

Advocate

Action Alert: Tell Congress to Fully Fund Domestic Torture Treatment!

At Issue: The bipartisan Torture Victims Relief Act authorizes Congress to allocate up to $25 million for grants to domestic torture treatment programs like Survivors of Torture, International. For torture treatment programs across the nation, these grants are vital to their ability to serve clients. But for years, Congress has only appropriated a little under half of the possible funding: in fiscal year 2010, the amount was $11.088 million. We need your help to educate Congress about the role torture treatment plays in our communities.

Action to Take:
(1) Call or write your local members of Congress.
(2) Tell them why torture treatment programs deserve full funding:

• Demand for Torture Treatment Services Overwhelm Existing Resources: A decade ago, the U.S. Office of Refugee Resettlement estimated that there were 400,000 torture survivors living in the United States. Since then, major refugee influxes from Iraq and Sudan, among other humanitarian crises, have pushed more current estimates to well over half a million. Meanwhile, funding for domestic torture rehabilitation centers has remained stagnant. Several programs were forced to close last year (in Nebraska, Philadelphia and Denver) or drastically scale back services due to lack of funding. Those that remain open report long waiting lists for services. While the President’s FY2011 budget proposes significant additional funding for other programs in the Office of Refugee Resettlement, torture treatment has thus far been overlooked.

• A Proven Track Record of Successful Treatment: Torture treatment programs help individuals and families to heal and survivors to rebuild productive lives of dignity. Studies of outcomes at multiple torture treatment programs have shown that clients’ mental health improved over the course of care, revealing marked improvements in self-sufficiency, productivity and civic engagement in as little as a year. As these results demonstrate, torture treatment programs promote self-sufficiency and help to reduce the resettlement cost and burden on state and local programs.

• Multiplying Value by Catalyzing Local Healing Communities: Torture treatment programs regularly provide direct services worth many times their budgets. Such leveraging of each program dollar is possible because torture treatment programs do not just give services; they recruit, train, and coordinate networks of local professionals willing to perform their services for torture survivors pro bono or for substantially reduced costs. That allows torture treatment programs to serve many more survivors than program staff, alone, could manage.

(3) Ask them: To request and/or support full funding, $25 million, for domestic torture treatment in the FY2011 Health and Human Services Appropriations bill.

Need the contact information for your federal representatives? Look here for your Representatives in the House. And here, for your Senators.

If you need help or would like to become more involved, please contact Timothy Griffiths, government affairs director, at (916) 492-6039.