Who We Are
We believe that all survivors of sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) are entitled to high quality psychological care. Our mission is to ensure that everyone who survives trauma, regardless of circumstance, has access to that care.
In order to achieve this mission, we focus on three tasks:
We build local capacity through training. Rather than placing cultural “outsiders” in our projects, we train local mental health providers to provide treatment following our methodology. This helps ensure treatment is culturally appropriate, and that the intervention will last beyond our organization’s involvement.
We launch scalable interventions. Our projects provide a model of care that can be implemented on a larger scale. Over time, our partner organizations become centers of excellence, providing a model for new projects to follow.
We conduct efficacy research. It is our responsibility to ensure that the treatment we help provide is effective in both reducing psychological symptoms and improving mental health.
Common Threads Project is designed to be one component of a holistic approach in which a system of coordinated security, legal, medical, economic, educational and social services are also provided for survivors.
Our Treatment Model
The Common Threads Project model, rooted in neuroscientific and socio-cultural understanding of trauma, revives an ancient practice found in diverse contexts: women come together to sew their stories onto cloth, to disclose the unspeakable atrocities they have experienced, and to support one another. Common Threads Project integrates this tradition with best practices from trauma-informed therapy, bodywork, and psycho-education.
Our clinical partners, under our supervision, form therapy groups of 12 to 15 women who have experienced SGBV. These women then undergo a 6-month treatment process, which involves the creation of a story cloth, as well as traditional trauma therapy interventions. The women’s sewing circle provides mutual support and safety, and enables the multi-dimensional work of trauma recovery.
Our History
Having begun its work in 2011, Common Threads was incorporated as a Swiss NGO in 2014. Following the relocation of its Executive Director to New York, Common Threads Project was expanded as a US based non-profit in 2016. CTP has 501(c)(3) status under US federal income tax regulations.
Common Threads’ initial project was with Colombian refugees in Ecuador in 2012, followed by a subsequent project implemented in 2014 with Bhutanese and Pakistani refugees in Nepal. The Nepal project has expanded and continues with new groups of girls and women participating. In 2017, our partner organization, TPO Nepal, held another training course to prepare more clinicians to lead CTP women’s circles in districts hardest hit by the earthquakes. These skilled clinicians have conducted circles to serve populations in need including Rohingya refugees in Nepal, teen girls and women who have endured sex trafficking, forced and early marriage, and other forms of gender-based violence. As it has become imbedded in the Nepali context, Common Threads Nepal goes by it’s Nepali name, “Sajha Dhago.”
Our Bosnia-Herzegovina project was added in 2015. CTP trained 16 mental health professionals from four partner organizations to lead 4 different CTP women’s circles in BiH. These circles took place in Tuzla, Zenica and Bihac from 2016 until 2018. A new round of facilitator training and implementation in Bosnia-Herzegovina was planned and funded for early 2020. After the first module of training in February 2020, we had to postpone the rest of the program until 2021-22 due to the pandemic.
In August of 2017, in partnership with Dr. Denis Mukwege Foundation and Panzi Foundation, Common Threads Project launched a pilot project in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo. Fifteen Congolese psychologists and psychosocial assistants participated in our training course to prepare for leading multiple CTP women’s circles at Maison Dorcas of Panzi Foundation in Bukavu, and in the mining zones of Kamituga and Luhwindja, where sexual violence and exploitation of women has been most pervasive. The local staff embraced the CTP approach as their own. They named the program “Kamba Moja” (Swahili for Common Threads). CTP launched new circles in partnership with Dr. Mukwege and Panzi Foundation in Spring of 2019. The project has expanded to include the town of Kavumu in South Kivu. The program was also adapted to serve abused and exploited teens and their babies, (often born of rape) in addition to the circles of adult women. These circles have continued to meet even during the pandemic.
In 2019- 2020, Common Threads Project established partnerships with community-based organizations serving refugee communities in the US. Although delayed by the outbreak of the pandemic, we will soon be launching two domestic projects. The Program for Survivors of Torture (PSOT) at Bellevue Hospital and the CUNY doctoral program in Clinical Psychology will host the New York project. In Seattle, our implementing partners are Refugees Northwest, Refugee Women’s Alliance (ReWA), Asian Counseling and Referral Services (ACRS), Mother Africa!, and the Somali Family Safety Task Force. We are looking forward to training and mentoring new facilitators at these sites and beginning intervention programs with them in 2021-22.