I know that most of us were taught in school that slavery ended nearly 150 years ago, but, unfortunately, that’s not really true. Slavery and human trafficking continue to plague our world, even though most of us aren’t really aware of it. Polaris Project is a non-profit organization is not only bringing awareness to the issues surrounding human trafficking and modern-day slavery, but also combatting them. They do this by “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, and engaging community members in local and national grassroots efforts.” They’ve been at it since 2002 with offices in Washington, DC; Newark, NJ; Denver, CO; and Tokyo, Japan.

Find Polaris

When you look at some of the accomplishments that Polaris Project posts on its website, you start to understand what it is that they actually do. For instance just last year in the DC area, they “provided 28 emergency responses serving 40 girls and women ages 13-42,” “provided individual mental health therapy for 4 survivors,” and “launched a Job Training Program for survivors” among many other things. It’s still hard to believe that human trafficking is going on so close to home, but it is. That’s why the Polaris Project exists, and that’s why you should consider joining their team. Right now they have two job openings in the Washington, DC area: NHTRC Program Associate/Specialist and NHTRC Resource Call Specialist. There are also two openings in Newark, NJ: Outreach Associate (part-time) and Case Manager. Additionally, they have quite a few openings in their Fellowship Program. You can find the specific application instructions at the end of each job posting.

Links to Help You Begin Your Research

• PolarisProject.org
• Jobs at Polaris Project
• About Polaris Project
• Polaris Project’s Staff
• Polaris Project’s Blog
• Polaris Project’s National Programs
• Polaris Project’s Local Programs

What have you heard about Polaris Project?

We've identified Polaris Project as having career opportunities in the following categories:

• advocacy
• all employers
• Colorado
• fellowship programs
• international
• Japan
• New Jersey
• non-profit
• program development
• Washington DC

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One response to “Polaris Project”

1. Roxy says:

   July 25, 2009 at 3:45 pm

   Hi Willy,

   Thanks for covering the Polaris Project. It reminded me of the organization Free the Slaves (www.freetheslaves.net). They are one of our members and it looks like they have good internship/job placement services.

   I noticed that you are covering a lot of nonprofits recently.

   Here’s some advice: volunteer, volunteer, volunteer! Find some way to volunteer for a cause that you are passionate about. You get extra points if you can raise money for them, especially right now. This is an extremely effective way to get a job at a nonprofit.

   Why volunteer? A friend who recently graduated from grad school and looked for jobs in DC at nonprofits went on 50 informational interviews and a few real ones. She did not get one job from any of those connections. She did, however, finally get a job at Search for Common Ground, where she had volunteered part-time while she did her job search. She is much happier now that she’s landed a job.

   I could write forever about landing a job in the nonprofit world. It is actually a bit different than the for-profit world but not so much that you shouldn’t do Willy & Jason’s course. I did their course and found it very helpful. Maybe the biggest difference is the ability to volunteer first to make connections – not as easy in the for-profit world, IME.

   Another tidbit of free advice for entry-level nonprofit workers: learn project management! Project management, project management, project management.

   Especially for international non-profits with a lot of gov’t funding. It basically all project work that you handle and work with sub-grantees from HQ. Not as sexy as some think because you are not out in Zimbabwe stuffing rice into kids’ faces. You are plugging in numbers and stressing over schedules and managing budgets and working long hours and drinking lots of coffee. If you want sexy, learn at least one foreign language and join the peace corps and then you will get more sexy jobs where the action is.

   OK, that’s all for now – Roxy out!

   Reply