Reporting and Guidelines for Direct Services to Survivors of Torture Recipients

The Services for Survivors of Torture program (SOT) is a program of the Office of Refugee Resettlement in the Division of Refugee Health. It is committed to assisting persons who have experienced torture abroad and who are residing in the United States, to restore their dignity and health and rebuild their lives as they integrate into their communities.

The Services for Survivors of Torture (SOT) Program helps people who have been tortured in another country and are now living in the United States (U.S.). Torture is defined by U.S. law as an act, which is intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering, and committed by a person acting under the color of law upon another person who he has under his custody or physical control (18 U.S. Code §2340). As of 2015, research from the Center for Victims of Torture suggests that 44% of refugees, asylees, and asylum seekers living in the U.S. have experienced torture. The SOT Program helps survivors and their families to restore their health and dignity as they reunite, rebuild their lives, and contribute to their communities.

The program includes two grant types on a five-year cycle:

There are currently 35 programs, funded by ORR Direct Services for Survivors of Torture Program, in 24 states. For program locations, view the list of recipients or this map of healing centers. Visit ORR’s disclaimer page. Eligibility for services does not depend on a person’s immigration status, and there is no time limit for receiving services.

If your program is a grantee of the Office of Refugee Resettlement’s Direct Services to Survivors of Torture, this page helps with reporting and guidelines of your grant.

How to Submit Reporting

All reports should be submitted directly to GrantSolutions.gov. For assistance with GrantSolutions, you can contact their helpdesk: [email protected].

FY2023 Reporting

For additional assistance see the section Reporting Program and Outcome Data Points listed below. To learn how to use GrantSolutions, see the training videos available here. To add a new user, follow these instructions. For assistance with GrantSolutions, you can contact their helpdesk: [email protected]. 

Documents for ORR Reporting

The financial forms can be found on Grants.gov, while the other documents are provided directly by the program office. For your convenience, the following forms are most important for SOT programs:

Here are the links to ORR Training Webinars on Data Points and the accompanying PowerPoint and forms: 

Significant guidance is available in the Program Evaluation topic of this website.

FY2023 Reporting Program and Outcome Data Points

All SOT grantees are required to submit annual demographic and outcome data using the SOT Program Data Points (PDP) Database located on the ORR Refugee Arrivals Data System (RADS). See Grantee User Access information for login and data entry instructions below. Please submit the PDP in RADS by October 31, 2023. Please include an unduplicated count of new and continuing clients served in the last fiscal year.

RADS Forms and Reference Documents:

These files were current as of September 29, 2023.

Eligibility

ORR grantees receiving Survivors of Torture funds are expected to determine eligibility for SOT services according to the definition given in the United States Torture Victims Relief Act legislation. Proof of eligibility should be reflected in the client file in a consistent format. Two documents were created by ORR SOT program staff to aid programs in making this determination for each potential client.

The 2016 webinar, Who is a Torture Survivor: Understanding the Legal Definitions of Torture, and accompanying documents, provides a helpful legal analysis of the UN and US legal definitions of torture currently used in the field.

If you still have questions about whether a specific potential client fits the definition, you can contact ORR staff directly or use the NCB Heal_Torture_Talk listserv (without divulging any patient health information or other identifying information) for peer guidance. For more information on the listserv as well as how to sign up.

Points of Contact

Grant Point of Contacts Programmatic Questions/Concerns

Office of Grants Management (OGM) Fiscal Reports and Budget Amendments/Questions

Payment Management System (PMS) – Issues with funds or Financial Federal Reports (FFR) PMS Liaison- Find POC

Refugee Arrivals Data System (RADS) – Technical difficulties, access issues

Issues with Grant Solutions Help Desk – [email protected], 1-866-577-0771 (M-F, 7am-8pm).

Additional Grant Resources

The ORR page on Managing Federal Grants may also be helpful to you.

ORR Webinars and Upcoming Trainings