Programs

UHHR provides specialized services to survivors of torture, war-related trauma, and human trafficking through three complimentary programs: the Clinical Treatment Program, the Trafficking Assistance Program, and the Community Capacity Building Program.

Clinical Treatment Program

Over 1,000 new refugees and asylum seekers arrive in Utah annually and approximately 50,000 refugees now call Utah home. Studies estimate as many as 35% of the world’s refugees are torture survivors.

The goal of UHHR’s Clinical Treatment Program is to improve physical, mental, and social health, encourage self-sufficiency, and to assist survivors in recovering from the impact of severe trauma and torture, integrating successfully into local communities, and leading fulfilling and successful lives. Program activities include:

• Case management/social services: Comprehensively assess and address each client’s social and mental health needs, including mental, dental, medical, legal, educational, and employment needs; work collaboratively with staff and outside providers to meet these needs and monitor progress towards goals.

• Medical advocacy: Match clients with physicians specially trained by UHHR and/or others to address refugee and immigrant health care issues, including torture and trauma.

• Mental health assessment and treatment: Provide low-barrier culturally appropriate mental health services, including professional counseling specializing in recovering from severe trauma, skill building, and bereavement.

Our services are culturally and linguistically sensitive and are offered in the client’s native language. UHHR staff speak Spanish, Farsi/Dari, Bosnian/Serbian/Croatian, Arabic, French, Pashtu, Urdu, and Russian and employ trained interpreters for other languages.

UHHR also operates the Community Resilience and Family Teaching Project (CRAFT), a cost-effective, ethnically specific, group treatment model that provides bi-lingual support and targeted education to improve access to services, increase self-sufficiency, and decrease social isolation. Topics such as cross-cultural parenting, coping with the aftermath of trauma, the importance of preventative health care, and family strengthening are covered. UHHR currently operates CRAFT projects in the Somali, Afghan, and Bosnian communities. Survivors in these communities are highly vulnerable to depression, isolation, and, if unserved, longer-term dependence on government assistance. Our group model has provided a low-barrier opportunity to reach individuals who have otherwise not sought services.

Trafficking Assistance Program

Trafficking is considered a form of modern day slavery where individuals, through the use of force, fraud, or coercion, become victims of forced labor or sexual exploitation. Immigrants are often targeted due to limited language skills, lack of legal knowledge, and the absence of family and social networks. Victims are often promised employment, marriage, or a better life, but once they are in possession of the traffickers, they find that the scenario dramatically changes and are subjected to extreme violence and coercion.

Cases have emerged in both the metropolitan areas, including Salt Lake City, and small rural communities. Former head of Immigration Customs Enforcement in Utah, Joe Romel, stated, "I would say that [human trafficking] is actually a lot more common than you might imagine.”

The goal of UHHR’s Trafficking Assistance Program is foster resiliency, health, and self-sustainability of individuals and families who have been victims of human trafficking in Utah. Those served by UHHR to date include men, women, and children who are victims of both forced labor and sex trafficking in our state. These individuals are extremely difficult to identify and may suffer years of brutality before being able to escape or be rescued from their situation.

The Utah Health and Human Rights Project is the lead agency of the Utah Trafficking Victim Assistance Program (UTVAP). UHHR services include comprehensive and culturally appropriate, intensive case management; consultation to law enforcement regarding the needs of victims, emergency and longer-term housing; mental health services; and legal and medical advocacy services.

Community Capacity Building Program

The goal of UHHR’s Community Capacity Building Program is to teach educators, and legal, health, and social service providers to skillfully identify and provide effective services to survivors of torture, trauma, and human trafficking in mainstream settings, such as medical offices and shelters.

Our staff provides customized presentations, training, and consultation to agencies and individuals on topics such as human rights abuses in the refugee and immigrant communities, medical and clinical approaches to treating survivors of human rights abuses, and techniques to identify victims of torture and trafficking.

Click here to request training for your agency or organization.