Impending Closure of Denver's Survivors' Center

It was very painful for me to hear that the Rocky Mountain Survivors' Center of Denver (RMSC) would soon close its doors. It sounded so preposterous; in my mind it seems some things of great value should never come to an end. I wondered where the many victims of torture who live among us would end up next. What facility, if any, will next take care of them? Or, will they end up mere statistics: victims of domestic abuse; or suicides among our refugees; drug abusers and alcoholics. Or the criminally insane. Or just lonely, shriveled up souls living among us?

It's a shame, it seems to me, to think that for the lack of a not too large amount of money we would let die a perfectly good institution like RMSC which has an exemplary track record. How can a center that has been valiantly fighting to mend broken souls from the four corners of the earth end up closing its doors?

The earth's soil it sometimes seems has a greater propensity to grow more torturers than peacemakers or givers of sweet silence's balm. Most of the world's governments tend to devote more funds to causes that torment and anguish man than those that bring enlightenment and foster kindness. RMSC was an institution that brought light and warmth to folks who knew so little from where they came.

I have been a witness of the good work RMSC has been doing. I have seen the men and women -- victims of man's cruelty to man -- who have gravitated to its doors to unburden themselves of the darkness that weighs their souls down; the nightmares that populate their nights.

The Survivors' Center established in 1996 has helped many victims of rape -- a form of torture that seems to have consistently over the years gained popularity. Today, it is a matter of routine; rape is part of the torturers' armory. The victims, mostly women (even though men have been subjected to it also) came from Bosnia, and recently from Darfur and the Congo.

Others have been men and women, subjected to all manner of physical and mental cruelty in an effort to break their spirit, to destroy them as human beings. It is particularly sad that torturers don't care about physical weakness or innocence: from children, to the sick, all are tortured; there are no exceptions.

Many such souls have been treated at the Center; and many have been able to live rather normal lives. The closure of RMSC will mean that there will be no recourse for these folks -- a sad prospect indeed.

The Center's other services have included legal help for refugees, who often find themselves on the wrong side of the immigration equation. Folks who had to prove that the experiences in their home countries constituted a narrow legal definition of torture. Unfortunately often, our well-intentioned immigration service employees are not always as enlightened as they should be. It was in those moments that the center's aid was valuable for the detained or the about to be deported asylum seekers.

These are difficult economic times for everyone. One suspects that funds that flowed from the federal government to help mental health facilities are sadly the first to be cut. Unfortunately, other supplementary funds from other sources will not suffice to keep RMSC's doors open. It's also sad that many other mental health institutions are not geared to and their personnel are not trained to deal with survivors of torture. And in any case, many of them will probably soon see their funding drastically reduced.

In talking to the RMSC's personnel they emphasize several things. Their clients remain in the community. And even though the institution -- the four walls, communication system, etc. -- will not be there, there's one other thing that will survive. The passion of the men and women who have been treating refugees and survivors of torture.

No sooner than it became clear RMSC was facing its demise than they began regrouping, finding other places where they can temporarily see their clientele. They have sent the word out that they're looking for mental health workers, psychologists and psychiatrists willing to volunteer their time and their office space.

This is the "can do" of a small number of Americans who year in and year out are consistently finding ways to give of themselves. As sad as it is that the Survivors' Center is closing, the spirit of helping the mentally tortured of the world in our midst will not die and it is our hope that another center will rise, like a phoenix from the ashes from the closing center.

 

 

Comments

[Greyness]

Lastly, for my time active with the RMSC, including going to a couple of the annual events, I do not recall meeting any of the members of the board over those years. Perhaps the board would have been more appropriate at twice its size to mitigate the obligation of each individual member of it? But needless to say, for all the work that was done to make the RMSC exist, and serve those it did, to someone such as myself (not privy to much power or responsibility in the organization but with interests in its longevity), the stark silence and near invisibility of those guiding it is what lingers as an after-taste. I trust that this is likely unfair to many, and perhaps even most or all of those who served on it. But, I provide these viewpoints for the consideration of other organizations, here now for those to come.

While I must, I am sorry to end this, Dr. Kamau. It feels like it is concluding what has seemed surreal this past month while making it all too cold and real.

Rest in Peace Rocky Mountain Survivor Center. Thousands of folks are better off because you were here. So, thank you founders. Thank you to all those who staffed it and directed it over these years, and gave likely more than was healthy for you to give.

While your doors may not reopen, trust that through them many hearts once closed are again open, including my own.

[Greyness]

This is actually one of the reasons I work to expand resources to and enable wider ranges of opportunities for those most impacted by these types of circumstances, including those who were intentionally traumatized. Because these circumstances are largely eventualities when complacency is able to reign. Even when those who work for noble pursuits tirelessly focus on those who most need it, to operate with inversely aligned power and empowerment gradients is to invite such surprises as met far too many among us these past few weeks.

I hope you may continue to forgive the extended length of this correspondence, Dr. Kamau. I will go on no further than necessary, but I feel that there are a couple elements still to address.

It is my belief that empowerment of and more comprehensive communication with the temporary and part-time un-paid workers would have been a good start to deepening the RMSC's roots and ensuring its sustainability. Often relied on for basic tasks and responsibilities at the core of the center, these staff members could easily be aware of issues before they would become systemic problems.

[Greyness]

In circling back to the issue of public relations, I feel it proper to include this following anecdote. I belong to a social and educational organization that is still quite focused on steadying its footing in the 21st century. I very much appreciate however, along with many others, the efforts by a temporary leader of it who went around through the branches and inquired with the members directly for their impressions and feelings of the organization and where it could go and what additional good it could do. This report was subsequently left for the president-elect, in hopes that collectively we may direct ourselves to strive against a wandering complacency and make the organization all the more resilient in the future.

I believe such a pro-active and empowering approach could have saved the Rocky Mountain Survivor Center, had it been initiated and followed through. Again, I am at quite a distance from the everyday matters of the center. However, it is my belief that an organization designed around well-educated professionals fulfilling a mandate to serve those most vulnerable in a community is responsible for not going completely out of business for the loss of one revenue stream.

[Greyness]

So, please understand that my impressions are in some ways affected by a history with the RMSC that included at first a limited period of professional development which was very rewarding and quite influential. I would not be doing what I am doing today without that experience. However , that period, and the mutually-beneficial relationship that existed between myself and the RMSC, largely expired in much the same way an internship would. Again, I do not think that this is an isolated experience. Though I will cease looking in that direction. It is really more the place of the NCTTP, the IRCT and local organizations that worked in association with the RMSC to critique the center's path - holistically - rather than me bother you with the feelings and particularities of one person's story.

Suffice it to say, I lament that the center goes away, and that it is only in its fall that I empower myself to speak about such things more widely than I have these past years. I wanted to believe I was foolish and brash. I would rather have been those than accurate in this, with such consequences as these.

[Greyness]

As sad as it made me over these years, the RMSC's visibility in the city and region remained largely where it was a half a decade ago. Though it got beyond its 10th anniversary, the center was critically vulnerable to one particular funding source. And ultimately it was without enough dedicated support from the citizens, companies and community organizations of the city and state to ensure it would not close.

I freely admit that my vista of the RMSC is not currently a very close or detailed one. And I don't pretend it was one shared by all. However, I would be surprised if it were not being shared by a few to many of those who interned and worked in a pro bono capacity at the RMSC in the past several years. And it is a point of view I have heard echoed regularly these past weeks, in the voices of concerned individuals including some who work in not entirely unrelated fields, as they find out it is going away. These are also the same individuals who were, like me, shocked that such a thing was in Denver, until informed of it. (Often this came about in the most indirect ways. I myself came across it only through a scenic-route web-search that brought me to the Denmark-based IRCT, where I then found "Rocky Mountain" being scrolled by. It took a while for me to suspend my disbelief in order to give it a shot.)

[Greyness]

Rest in Peace RMSC.

Dr. Kamau,

I share some of the pain in seeing such an organization go, and particularly, as you mentioned, it was not of any ornate or glorified size or budget.

I do not know if you truly were open to such, but nevertheless, out of concern of other non-profit organizations - similarly offering vital services to those who can not afford such failure in the face of what burdens are theirs - I will offer you a bit of my point-of-view in response to your question:

"How can a center that has been valiantly fighting to mend broken souls from the four corners of the earth end up closing its doors?"

I believe one over-riding lesson that can be learned from the closure of the RMSC - being a stand-alone center unattached to a university or other parent organization - is the matter of strong and inter-dependent community and public relations. Which, from my vantage point, the RMSC did not have enough of.

To provide context, if it is in discussion still in the coming days:
I say this as an individual that has not been actively a part of the organization for some time, but who began as a volunteer at the center in 2005 and has worked for increased services, and improved resources and opportunities for the same folks since.