Reporting and Guidelines for Direct Services to Survivors of Torture Grantees

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 grant programs located in 24 states throughout the U.S. 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.

Reporting

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

FY2022 Reporting

Please see ORR Policy Letter 21-05 regarding Continued Assistance for ORR Populations Affected by COVID-19.

The non-competing continuation (NCC) application is due on April 17, 2021, and the semi-annual Performance Progress Report (PPR) and Federal Financial Report (FFR) is due on April 30, 2022 at 11:59 pm EST.  Please make sure to include the accomplishments from the previous budget year (FY20) and your plans for the coming year (FY22) in the NCC narrative. Accomplishments for the first reporting period of FY21 can also be included but it is not required.  Also, please make sure to include an updated logic model with achieved outputs/outcomes for FY20, as well as logic models for FY21 and FY22.  For more information regarding the ORR SOT semi-annual report guidance please refer to the 2022 ORR Reporting Guidance for the Survivors of Torture Program.

For additional assistance (from FY20) 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].

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

FY2022 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, 2022. 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 13, 2022.

Documents for ORR Reporting

Reporting documents are always available on the ORR report forms website. For your convenience, the following forms are most important for SOT programs:

Here are the links to the May 2021 ORR Training Webinar on Data Points and the accompanying PowerPoint and forms: 

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

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 first one is policy guidance.

The second one is a sample eligibility form.

The 2016 webinar, Who is a Torture Survivor: Understanding the Legal Definitions of Torture, and accompanying documents, is very helpful with regard to questions of eligibility.

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.

Welcome message from ORR Director Cindy Huang

Dear ORR Partners,

It is with great enthusiasm that I join HHS as the new Director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement. I have long valued the mission and work of ORR. I am honored to join this team of professionals so dedicated to welcoming refugees, asylees, and unaccompanied children and helping them to rebuild their lives and achieve their full potential.

We know that you, too, are deeply committed to this work and we are grateful to partner with you. We don’t have to look far to see the many challenges and barriers to achieving our shared goals. But with a north star of human well-being and dignity, we can and must build back better.

I invite you to share your input, feedback, and ideas for how we can innovate, center the experiences and expertise of the populations we serve, increase equity and inclusion throughout our work, create and effectively use data and evidence, and become better partners. Increasing welcome and improving outcomes is a whole-of-society endeavor.

Please email me at [email protected], a new inbox to collect input from our grantees, contractors, and partners.

I look forward to hearing from you and working with you!

Warm regards,

Cindy Huang, Director, Office of Refugee Resettlement

Administration for Children and Families, Department of Health and Human Services

ORR Webinars and Upcoming Trainings