CVT offers training to health care providers, educators and others about the devastating effects of torture and war trauma. Using training curricula that can serve as models throughout the U.S. and abroad, we currently train on the local, national, and international levels. There are more than 30,000 torture survivors living in Minnesota and an estimated 500,000 in the United States. As a single agency, CVT can provide direct services to only a small number of those people. We can,however, improve the lives of a far greater number of people by building communities where torture survivors are welcomed, protected and healed. When a child who has seen her homeland devastated by war knows that her teacher will give her the extra attention she needs; when a nurse can recognize the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder and refer a patient to the right resources; when torture survivors know that they can find doctors who understand their needs and oppose torture – then we have begun to build a healing community.

See Minnesota Outreach, National Outreach, and International Outreach for specific details on current capacity-building projects.