Survivors of Torture Program

The Marjorie Kovler Center’s torture treatment approach empowers survivors to use their strengths to regain independence and personal integrity. Participants may receive medical, mental health, and social services, as well as assistance with food, housing, and employment. The Kovler Center helps survivors restore their trust in others and re-establish a sense of community.

If you are a survivor of torture and are seeking services, please contact our case managers at 224-479-2705 or -2714.

TREATMENT MODEL – Follows three stages of recovery:

• the establishment of safety;
• remembrance and mourning;
• re-connection with community and ordinary life.

Survivors may continue to receive supportive services after completing the three stages of treatment such as case management, organized events, and the International Cooking Group. 

FRAMEWORK FOR SERVICES:

• Community-based: The Kovler Center believes that torture treatment is best supported in a community context. Survivors are seen both at the Kovler Center and in the private offices of volunteer practitioners. The Kovler Center building, a former convent, is a solid, brick, four-story built in the art deco style and located on a quiet, peaceful residential street in the Rogers Park neighborhood. Survivors often remark on the sense of safety they feel upon entry, comparing it to a sanctuary, and ultimately to the feeling of home.
• Volunteer-based: The Kovler Center includes a volunteer component into its framework for services based on the assumption that if torture is meant to break the bonds of the individual with their community, then the community must be involved in the response. In order to extend services to a large number of survivors and to meet complex needs, the Kovler Center engages a wide range of pro bono professionals (internists, family practice and general practitioners, psychiatrists, dentists, optometrists, psychotherapists, massage therapists, physical therapists, acupuncturists), pro bono paraprofessionals (tutors, interpreters), and students (psychology, social work) to deliver essential services to survivors. 
• No cost: The Kovler Center has a long-standing commitment to ensuring that survivors of torture do not have to pay for the rehabilitation needed because of what has been done to them by their own government or another.

PILLARS OF SERVICE:

• Holistic approach to integrated services;
• Trauma-informed approach that is empowerment-focused, strength-based, and survivor-driven;
• Support of spiritual well-being;
• Culturally and linguistically responsive services;
• Rebuilding community;
• Access to justice.

EVALUATION: As key elements of accountability, the collection and dissemination of data holds the Kovler Center accountable to our participants, our funders, and to ourselves. The Kovler Center’s outcome evaluation primarily utilizes three instruments:  the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ), the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25 (HSCL), and the Marjorie Kovler Center Well Being Questionnaire (MKC WBQ). These instruments are administered at intake and at 6-month intervals, up to 24 months (on average, the end of formal treatment). Additionally, the Kovler Centers administers a satisfaction survey used to continually improve our program and address any needs or issues that arise. Overall, our findings show remarkable improvements over time in several domains, including a reduction in anxiety and depression, a reduction in symptoms related to trauma and post-traumatic stress, improvements in physical health, and gains in functional areas, such as legal, employment, and housing status.

PRIVACY: To learn how medical information about our participants may be used and disclosed, as well as how participants can access this information, please read the notice below:

• Joint Notice of Privacy Practices (English)
• Joint Notice of Privacy Practices (Español)