Polaris Research and Development, Inc. is a social and public policy consulting firm located and licensed in San Francisco. Founded as a minority-owned, sole proprietorship in 1979 and reorganized as a minority- owned corporation in 1995, Polaris grew out of the work of two other organizations -- The URSA Institute, a non-profit research organization, and URSA, a public interest partnership. Polaris is a certified LBE, DBE in the city of San Francisco.  Our certification number is #HRC060811982.

Polaris' work centers upon information and assistance services to a wide variety of clients. The wide breadth of such services is best exemplified by the operation of such divergent efforts as the San Francisco International Airport Information Booth Program for thirty years, the Multicultural AIDS Resources Center of California (MARCC) for the State Office of AIDS for ten years, the San Francisco African American Tobacco Free Project for 10 years, the Black Infant Health Project for five years (SFDPH) and the Perinatal Outreach and Education Project for five years (SFDPH).