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.::Polaris Project::.

Founding of Polaris Project:

Polaris Project was founded in 2002 by Katherine Chon and Derek Ellerman while they were in their senior year at Brown University.
Katherine and Derek officially launched Polaris Project on V-Day, February 14, 2002,
and after considerable research and forethought, entered a business plan into an annual entrepreneurship competition at Brown.

HumanTrafficking.com, was launched in the Spring of 2002 with a team of over 25 student researchers and 2 faculty advisors supporting its development.
Polaris Project's first office was located in Washington DC.
Without a concrete roadmap or recipe to help Polaris Project make an impact,
much of the organization's early work involved experimentation, innovation, and trying out new ideas and strategies.

In the following year, Polaris Project branched out into new areas
and its leadership came to understand the importance of combating the issue using a comprehensive approach that combined a set of inter-related strategies.
These strategies evolved over time but grew to include victim outreach and identification, victim services and protection, policy advocacy,
training and technical assistance, developing future leaders, and building a movement through grassroots community mobilization.

The Mission:

The mission of Polaris Project is committed to combating human trafficking and modern-day slavery,
and to strengthening the anti-trafficking movement through a comprehensive approach.
Polaris Project is named after the North Star that guided slaves towards freedom along the Underground Railroad.
It has been providing a comprehensive approach to combating human trafficking and modern-day slavery since 2002.
It is based on a vision of the world without slavery.
Polaris Project is one of the largest anti-trafficking organizations in the United States and Japan.
With offices in Washington, DC; Newark, NJ; Denver, CO; and Tokyo, Japan, it is operating at international, national and local levels.
Polaris Project is one of the very few organizations that serve both citizen and foreign national victims of human trafficking.

Polaris Project's comprehensive approach to combating human trafficking includes:

-Conducting direct outreach and victim identification
-Providing social services and transitional housing to victims
-Operating the National Human Trafficking Resource Center (NHTRC)
-Serving as the central national hotline on human trafficking
-Advocating for stronger state and Federal anti-trafficking legislation
-Engaging community members in local and national grassroots efforts

Polaris Project has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors for its achievements including:

-Ashoka Innovators for the Public
-Marie Claire’s 10 Best Charities
-2006 Justice for Victims of Crime Award given by the Department of Justice
-DO Something BRICK award
-Washington Area Women’s Foundation Leadership Award 2004
-Honors from Lifetime Television, Body Shop, and CNN

Values of the Polaris Project:

The work of Polaris Project is grounded in a set of values and organizational beliefs that provide a common starting point for its programs.
All staff and volunteers strive to embody and model these values within the Polaris community and in the anti-trafficking field.

1. Service
2. Efficiency and Impact
3. Strengths-Based Empowerment
4. Diversity and Multiculturalism
5. Non-violence
6. Innovation and Sophistication
7. Communication

To learn more about Polaris Project or to be updated, please visit:
POLARIS PROJECT NORTH STAR BLOG