Polaris Project Colorado (PPC)
Polaris Project Colorado is committed to advancing the statewide citizen movement against human trafficking through public awareness, information gathering, policy advocacy, and partnerships with local organizations and institutions.
“ ...human trafficking is poised to become the world’s largest criminal industry if it continues to grow at its current rate.” Polaris Coordinator, Amanda Finger
Human trafficking doesn’t get a lot of headline space. Occasionally, a brothel sting reveals a group of women forced into prostitution. A blip about de facto slavery on a finca (a plantation) in Brazil might make the news. But for most of us, human trafficking’s not an issue that strikes close to home.
According to the Polaris Project, human trafficking is poised to become the world’s largest criminal industry if it continues to grow at its current rate. Human trafficking doesn’t just happen abroad. Polaris reports:
17,500 people are trafficked through the US each year.
Among US citizens runaway and disenfranchised youth are those most routinely targeted.
Two college seniors started Polaris in 1999 as an organization devoted to ending human trafficking. Over dinner one night, Katherine Chon and Derek Ellerman began discussing human trafficking, also known as modern slavery. After some research, they grew increasingly interested in ways to combat human trafficking and started the official non-profit after graduation. “Polaris,” is the name of the North Star that guided slaves on the Underground Railroad.
One of the factors that allow human trafficking to continue, according to Polaris, is that a lot of people don’t know much about it, or believe it doesn’t happen in the United States. But it does.
In addition to the thousands of foreign nationals annually trafficked throughout the U.S., there are also plenty of U.S. citizens involved in trafficking. Pimps, for example, are seldom thought of as human traffickers. But they are often de facto slave owners, says Polaris. Pimps target runaway youths and battered women using coercion and intimidation to keep them working. That, says Polaris, is the definition of slavery.
To combat this practice, Polaris tries to educate the public by offering workshops for law enforcement, at-risk youth, community organizations, and whoever else will lend an ear. Polaris also lobbies for stricter human trafficking policies It functions as a conduit between agencies devoted to combating human trafficking, coordinating efforts to make those agencies better, smarter, stronger.
Finally, Polaris looks for victims of human trafficking, helping to free them and offering a safe haven. For safety reasons, Polaris keeps its location secret.
Polaris coordinator, Amanda Finger, is always on the lookout for new contributors to the mission and provides internships through the University of Colorado’s Experiential Learning Center (ELC).
To find out more about Colorado Polaris Project see: http://www.polarisproject.org