Long before modern technology, enslaved people in the U.S. looked to a distant star to guide them toward liberty: Polaris, the North Star. That powerful symbol is at the heart of the Polaris Project, a nonprofit founded in 2002 by Brown University seniors Derek Ellerman and Katherine Chon, created to dismantle human trafficking and champion survivors.
Polaris operates with a survivor-first ethos. Its work spans the U.S. National Human Trafficking Hotline — a lifeline survivors and advocates can call, text, or chat 24/7 — along with the largest-known trafficking dataset in North America, and policy work that shapes federal and state law, law enforcement training, and business partnerships.
Polaris's Typology of Modern Slavery, built from more than 32,000 cases, breaks human trafficking into 25 distinct models — each requiring a unique response. Since the Hotline launched in 2007, Polaris has handled over 82,000 trafficking-related situations. Its Financial Intelligence Unit, launched with PayPal, targets the financial systems traffickers exploit — making the crime riskier and less profitable.
Polaris proves what our own work depends on: trafficking is local, urgent, and often hidden in plain sight — and a reachable lifeline changes everything. If you or someone you know needs help, call the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888 or text 233733.
Learn more at polarisproject.org.
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