Careers in Conflict Transformation and professional peaceworking: Humanitarian aid worker, human rights worker + social work

In domestic US professional positions, employment with a strickly humanitarian aid focus is more limited than international work, though this may change depending on the state of previously less common factors, such as houselessness, hunger, and other formerly relatively uncommon phenomena.

Domestically, in the US, this work can be classified as social work, a natural career option for a CTPS major or minor. Indeed, there are areas of the country that are historically impoverished, with less public funding, where a graduate with a BA/BS in CTPS can be hired as an entry-level social worker without any other qualifications. The pay is often lower than average for social workers, the clientele may be more marginalized and impoverished, but it's a dream job for the right person with certain ideals and orientations. It can also give a working person time to earn a graduate certificate or even a masters degree while working full time, paving the path to a position as a social worker anywhere. 

Income is generally greater in some of the international humanitarian aid projects, especially those which are well funded by governments or consortia of governments, e.g., more dangerous conditions in hot conflict zones. The dangers can be prohibitive, such as those humanitarian organizations that were active in Gaza during the 2023-2025 war between Israel and Hamas, when both sides targeted noncombatants, which is frequently where humanitarian aid workers and their fixed or mobile facilities were.

Sadly, the wreckage committed by the Trump regime, such as destroying USAID, greatly negatively impacted that career field, with overseas opportunities largely veering toward the fewer opportunities in private foundation-funded nongovernmental organizations. It is to be hoped in this arena and many others that a future US administration and Congress will strongly restore this funding and rebuild the governmental agency infrastructure that had previously made humanitarian aid worker a staple career option for the CTPS graduate. 

Some humanitarian aid work remains available and will not close down, such as the American Red Cross,[1] which works domestically and internationally. The student who hopes to do this work will be well served to earn an undergrad degree in CTPS with a minor in public health or a CTPS degree with electives in public health, though even with the American Red Cross there are entry-level positions that focus more on marketing and communications. As with any desired career path, the idea is to fix on what you want to do and work with advisors to build the coursework and degree composition that is your on-ramp to employment in your envisioned future.

Human rights work is one career extraordinarily attractive to some CTPS students and entry-level work in that field is available. Enduring organizations, such as the International Rescue Committee, Front Line Defenders, Save the Children, Oxfam, Human Rights Watch, Human Rights First, Amnesty International, the Associations of Women's Rights in Development, Open Society Foundations, and Freedom House all hire at the entry-level. Some require post-degree experience and some do not. Some have affiliate organizations that hire separately. As with all CTPS career paths, volunteering for such organizations and serving as interns at such groups can be a strong advantage in post-graduation job search.[2]

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[1] https://www.redcross.org/about-us/careers.html?srsltid=AfmBOooJghHo_NbLMrOQMzm0H86epiQEkA2pC9xIS3ZrEg7tSDMP2VxG

[2] For example, some years ago I had lunch with the volunteer-coördinator for a large humanitarian assistance organization and she told me that she fielded, on average, approximately 200 inquiries per week just to volunteer for the group, only a tiny handful of whom she was able to place. Later I sat with a student who had her heart set on working for that organization and, armed with her transcript showing her strong affinity for that work, as well as a letter of recommendation from germane professors (including me), she not only secured a volunteer position, but within a year she was hired by them full-time and was, in her case, deployed to do work in the Middle East helping them bring aid and CT education to one country.