Programs
This section contains links to organizations, research centers, and programs which study and support well-being, resilience and mental health for advocates and organizations working in human rights, journalists and related fields of practice. Under Respite Programs, we have listed programs for support and specialised programms for "at risk" human rights defenders.
Programs & Centers
The Healing Solidarity Coalition
An online space to collectively resource ourselves in healing solidarity and to gather around the work of healing the sector both from injustice in our practice and the working practices that overwhelm and exhaust us. This is a space to meet people, support each other as peers, sharing your initiatives, ideas, questions and reflections.
Associates for Health Rights
AHAR is an independent, non-profit, and non-partisan organization based in Uganda which works to promote vulnerable persons' right to health and well-being. They have created, along with Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), #seetheinvisible a public information campaign aiming to tackle the stigma around mental health in general, which includes a focus on social justice and human rights advocates.
Center for Applied Human Rights, University of York
CAHR is an interdisciplinary research and teaching centre at the University of York. Its community of scholars and visiting practitioners work on issues relating to the challenges of implementing human rights in practice, including a significant focus on protecting human rights defenders who are at risk.
DART Center for Journalism and Trauma, Columbia University
The Dart Center is a think tank and resource center for journalists covering violence and conflict. The Center's mission is to “improve the quality of journalism on traumatic events, while also raising awareness in newsrooms of the impact such coverage has on the journalists telling the stories”. In addition to relevant programming, the Center offers seminars, training and support programs for journalists.
Even the Finest of Warriors (Available in Arabic here)
Even the Finest of Warriors is a research and a book project focusing on how feminist activists manage different aspects of their private lives and concurrently deal with the difficulties of being in the public space. This project is concerned with psychological health, general exhaustion, financial security and growing old as neglected intersections and moves forth from the precept that our lives and our personal struggles are worthy of documentation. It attempts to offer a space where private worries can be expressed, and to normalize the idea that ‘exhaustion’ is one of the outcomes of interacting with the public space.
Grupo de Acción Comunitaria, Centro de Recursos en Salud Mental y Derechos Humanos
The Community Action Group is a community of volunteers whose work focuses on, amongst other things, psychosocial and community work; health and the community; mental health and economic, political and social rights. The group aims to be a space and organizational resource for communities, collectives, institutions and organizations working in the psychosocial and community realms, especially at its intersection with human rights, in the Latin American context.
Harriet’s Apothecary
Based in New York, this group of healers describes itself as an "inter-generational, healing village led by the brilliance and wisdom of Black Cis Women, Queer and Trans healers, artists, health professionals, magicians, activists and ancestors". Their work is aimed at "co-creating accessible, affordable, liberatory, all-body loving, all-gender honoring, community healing spaces that recognize, inspire, and deepen the healing genius of people who identify as Black, Indigenous and People of color and the allies that love them".
International Trauma Studies Program
ITSP is an NGO based in New York which focuses on research and programming to increase awareness of suffering caused by trauma. Their work aims to "enhanc(e) the natural resilience and coping capacities in individuals, families, and communities that have endured and/or are threatened by traumatic events”. They conduct research, hold professional trainings, and offer technical assistance to international organizations. Their aim is to help build a global learning community around mental health and human rights.
Kindred Southern Healing Justice Collective
Kindred Southern Healing Justice Collective is a project that was “conceived by healers and organizers of color in the Southern United States in 2007, as a response to the crisis of trauma, violence and social conditions in that region”. Their work has been seminal in creating the healing justice framework used yy the Black Lives Matter movement today. Members of the collective have also created Good Medicine, a resource that contains interviews with healers and activists from the Southern United States.
Muslim Wellness Foundation
The Muslim Wellness Foundation is a nonprofit organization which aims to "reduce the stigma associated with mental illness, addiction and trauma within the American Muslim community through dialogue, education and training". Their work does this through by engaging community members, health professionals, and religious leaders in conversation to improve mental health literacy, reduce stigma reduction, and promote "help-seeking behavior" and access to culturally competent services.
Oxalis Collective
The Oxalis Collective is group of three healers of color based in Washington D.C., with extensive experience in the social justice space who offer healing support to activists. They offer a comprehensive collection of tools, including training, webinars which are “intended to establish healing justice practice within groups to generate long-term sustainability and well-being for justice movements”.
Rhiza Collective
Rhiza is a women-led collective that uses story-telling, healing, organizing and research to support social transformation and environmental justice. They offer healing justice spaces and support in developing programming that works at the intersections of healing and human rights, including in its 2018 project, Fire that Fuels, exploring sustainable activism for human rights defenders.
An online space to collectively resource ourselves in healing solidarity and to gather around the work of healing the sector both from injustice in our practice and the working practices that overwhelm and exhaust us. This is a space to meet people, support each other as peers, sharing your initiatives, ideas, questions and reflections.
Associates for Health Rights
AHAR is an independent, non-profit, and non-partisan organization based in Uganda which works to promote vulnerable persons' right to health and well-being. They have created, along with Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), #seetheinvisible a public information campaign aiming to tackle the stigma around mental health in general, which includes a focus on social justice and human rights advocates.
Center for Applied Human Rights, University of York
CAHR is an interdisciplinary research and teaching centre at the University of York. Its community of scholars and visiting practitioners work on issues relating to the challenges of implementing human rights in practice, including a significant focus on protecting human rights defenders who are at risk.
DART Center for Journalism and Trauma, Columbia University
The Dart Center is a think tank and resource center for journalists covering violence and conflict. The Center's mission is to “improve the quality of journalism on traumatic events, while also raising awareness in newsrooms of the impact such coverage has on the journalists telling the stories”. In addition to relevant programming, the Center offers seminars, training and support programs for journalists.
Even the Finest of Warriors (Available in Arabic here)
Even the Finest of Warriors is a research and a book project focusing on how feminist activists manage different aspects of their private lives and concurrently deal with the difficulties of being in the public space. This project is concerned with psychological health, general exhaustion, financial security and growing old as neglected intersections and moves forth from the precept that our lives and our personal struggles are worthy of documentation. It attempts to offer a space where private worries can be expressed, and to normalize the idea that ‘exhaustion’ is one of the outcomes of interacting with the public space.
Grupo de Acción Comunitaria, Centro de Recursos en Salud Mental y Derechos Humanos
The Community Action Group is a community of volunteers whose work focuses on, amongst other things, psychosocial and community work; health and the community; mental health and economic, political and social rights. The group aims to be a space and organizational resource for communities, collectives, institutions and organizations working in the psychosocial and community realms, especially at its intersection with human rights, in the Latin American context.
Harriet’s Apothecary
Based in New York, this group of healers describes itself as an "inter-generational, healing village led by the brilliance and wisdom of Black Cis Women, Queer and Trans healers, artists, health professionals, magicians, activists and ancestors". Their work is aimed at "co-creating accessible, affordable, liberatory, all-body loving, all-gender honoring, community healing spaces that recognize, inspire, and deepen the healing genius of people who identify as Black, Indigenous and People of color and the allies that love them".
International Trauma Studies Program
ITSP is an NGO based in New York which focuses on research and programming to increase awareness of suffering caused by trauma. Their work aims to "enhanc(e) the natural resilience and coping capacities in individuals, families, and communities that have endured and/or are threatened by traumatic events”. They conduct research, hold professional trainings, and offer technical assistance to international organizations. Their aim is to help build a global learning community around mental health and human rights.
Kindred Southern Healing Justice Collective
Kindred Southern Healing Justice Collective is a project that was “conceived by healers and organizers of color in the Southern United States in 2007, as a response to the crisis of trauma, violence and social conditions in that region”. Their work has been seminal in creating the healing justice framework used yy the Black Lives Matter movement today. Members of the collective have also created Good Medicine, a resource that contains interviews with healers and activists from the Southern United States.
Muslim Wellness Foundation
The Muslim Wellness Foundation is a nonprofit organization which aims to "reduce the stigma associated with mental illness, addiction and trauma within the American Muslim community through dialogue, education and training". Their work does this through by engaging community members, health professionals, and religious leaders in conversation to improve mental health literacy, reduce stigma reduction, and promote "help-seeking behavior" and access to culturally competent services.
Oxalis Collective
The Oxalis Collective is group of three healers of color based in Washington D.C., with extensive experience in the social justice space who offer healing support to activists. They offer a comprehensive collection of tools, including training, webinars which are “intended to establish healing justice practice within groups to generate long-term sustainability and well-being for justice movements”.
Rhiza Collective
Rhiza is a women-led collective that uses story-telling, healing, organizing and research to support social transformation and environmental justice. They offer healing justice spaces and support in developing programming that works at the intersections of healing and human rights, including in its 2018 project, Fire that Fuels, exploring sustainable activism for human rights defenders.
Respite Programs
Iniciativa Mesoamericana de Mujeres Defensoras de Derechos Humanos, Casa La Serena
Casa La Serena is a temporary respite program in Oaxaca, Mexico for women human rights defenders in the region. The program focuses on self-care and includes activities such as yoga, creative and traditional therapies, spending time in nature, and group workshops. Individuals interested in the program can email the organizers directly through their website.
Flow Integral Change Center
The Center brings together experts in the fields of critical intersectional analysis, interdisciplinary philosophy, postcolonial, gender and posttrauma psychology with the goal of supporting effective development of progressive social changes. It provides 4- and 9-day courses that are individualized, bring together theory and practice, and provide a platform for cooperation and networking among participants. These programs are designed for social changemakers, activists, human rights defenders, leaders of social movements, scientists, teachers, psychologists, social workers and social entrepreneurs.
University of York's Protective Fellowship Scheme for Human Rights Defenders
In this program, up to ten human rights defenders deemed to be "at risk" spend between three to six months at the University of York, where they can gain access to training and education programs, and contribute to the activities of the University's Center for Applied Human Rights. The program allows participating human rights defenders to rest, and use the this time to build their capacities and gain tools that they can use upon their return. Human rights defenders are nominated for this program by designated civil society organizations.
Frontline Defenders' Rest & Respite and Fellowships Programs
This program enables human rights defenders to take some time out in a safe environment (and some well-earned rest) while at the same time enhancing their skills so that they can work more effectively when they return home. Human rights defenders can use this program to temporarily escape the stressful and difficult circumstances in which they work. Fellows can choose to work on a specific project, learn about digital security or improve other skills relevant to their work. This program is offered on an invitation-only basis.
Casa La Serena is a temporary respite program in Oaxaca, Mexico for women human rights defenders in the region. The program focuses on self-care and includes activities such as yoga, creative and traditional therapies, spending time in nature, and group workshops. Individuals interested in the program can email the organizers directly through their website.
Flow Integral Change Center
The Center brings together experts in the fields of critical intersectional analysis, interdisciplinary philosophy, postcolonial, gender and posttrauma psychology with the goal of supporting effective development of progressive social changes. It provides 4- and 9-day courses that are individualized, bring together theory and practice, and provide a platform for cooperation and networking among participants. These programs are designed for social changemakers, activists, human rights defenders, leaders of social movements, scientists, teachers, psychologists, social workers and social entrepreneurs.
University of York's Protective Fellowship Scheme for Human Rights Defenders
In this program, up to ten human rights defenders deemed to be "at risk" spend between three to six months at the University of York, where they can gain access to training and education programs, and contribute to the activities of the University's Center for Applied Human Rights. The program allows participating human rights defenders to rest, and use the this time to build their capacities and gain tools that they can use upon their return. Human rights defenders are nominated for this program by designated civil society organizations.
Frontline Defenders' Rest & Respite and Fellowships Programs
This program enables human rights defenders to take some time out in a safe environment (and some well-earned rest) while at the same time enhancing their skills so that they can work more effectively when they return home. Human rights defenders can use this program to temporarily escape the stressful and difficult circumstances in which they work. Fellows can choose to work on a specific project, learn about digital security or improve other skills relevant to their work. This program is offered on an invitation-only basis.
Inclusion of resources does not constitute an endorsement.