2024 Race Against Trafficking 5K Run/Walk

Please join the Kern County Family Justice Center Foundation for its second annual Race Against Trafficking 5K Run/Walk.

Race Information
Race Date: Saturday, January 27th
Race Location: The Park at Riverwalk
Sponsorship Cutoff Date: Friday, January 12th
Registration Ends: Saturday, January 27th at 8:00 am
Please note day of registration will increase by $10.00

Packet Pickup
Friday, January 26th from 2:00 pm to 6:00 pm at Action Sports located at 9500 Brimhall Rd., Bakersfield, CA 93312
Saturday, January 27th from 7:00 am to 8:00 am at The Park at Riverwalk

Event Schedule
6:00 AM to 7:00 AM - Booth Setup (Sponsors, Agencies, Food Vendors)
7:00 AM to 8:00 AM - Same Day Race Registration and Packet Pickup
8:15 AM - Opening Remarks
8:30 AM - Race Begins
9:15 AM - Presentation of Speakers, Awards for Race Winners, Presentation of Sponsors

MEDALS WILL BE AWARDED TO THE TOP 3 PARTICIPANTS IN EACH AGE GROUP CATEGORY FOR BOTH MALES AND FEMALES
10 and under
11-12
13-14
15-19
20-29
30-39
40-49
50-59
60-69
70 and over

The Kern County Family Justice Center Foundation
The Kern County Family Justice Center Foundation (KCFJCF) has partnered with the Kern County Family Justice Center (KCFJC) to raise, hold, manage, and distribute donations and other funds from individuals and organizations to foster and support the KCFJC in its work to provide services to victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse, and human trafficking.

Donations support client services such as transportation, onsite childcare, emergency needs such as groceries or diapers, locksmith services for victims, and other auxiliary services to help adult victims and children. We are also seeking donations to support the Family Justice Center’s mission to assist victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse, and human trafficking.

Human Trafficking
California has the notorious distinction of being one of the nation’s top destinations for human trafficking. California consistently ranks number one in the nation in the number of human trafficking cases reported to the National Human Trafficking Hotline. The California Attorney General has described human trafficking as “pervasive” within the State of California. In recent years, cities across the state have seen an alarming spike in the number of human trafficking cases.

Human trafficking is the fastest-growing criminal enterprise in the world. Traffickers have learned that trafficking a person is much more profitable than trafficking other items of property, such as guns and drugs since human beings are reusable commodities. The highly profitable and reusable nature of trafficking victims has resulted in a rapidly growing criminal industry on our city streets and online. Traffickers can make upwards of $2,500 a day forcibly selling victims in the sex trade. 

In California, sex trafficking victims are forced to have sex with hundreds of strangers a year. Trafficking victims are not allowed to eat, sleep, rest, or receive other basic life necessities until they meet the daily demands of their traffickers. Every aspect of their life is controlled by the trafficker, and victims are forced to live in an isolated world where terror and abuse reign. Traffickers thrive in a culture that reduces human beings to mere property to be sold and exploited at the trafficker’s will.

The trafficking of children is particularly rampant in California, with traffickers forcing kids as young as 11-12 years old to have sex with upwards of fifteen people a day or more. The average age at which a child is forced into the sex trade is between 11-14 years old. Traffickers will often threaten to kill the children they enslave if they do not meet their daily sex quota demands. Traffickers will also threaten to hurt or kill the enslaved child’s family if the child does not submit to the trafficker’s demands. Besides verbal threats, traffickers will often burn their victims, beat them, and force them to have sex with them. Traffickers will also often brand their victims by forcing their victims to get the trafficker’s name tattooed on their faces or body.

Labor trafficking is no less insidious, as victims of labor trafficking are forced to work long hours in unsanitary and inhuman working conditions for little or no pay. Labor traffickers will often tell their victims they will not be believed if they try to report the crime, and the authorities will deport them. Like sex traffickers, labor traffickers keep total control over their victims by using a combination of physical force and psychological manipulation.

Both state and federal law enforcement agencies, including the California Attorney General, define human trafficking as “modern-day slavery”. This label is well-deserved as traffickers control every aspect of a victim’s life. Traffickers are exploiters of the worst kind, often targeting the most vulnerable and abused of society for their own financial and sexual exploitation. Women, children, and minorities are particularly vulnerable to exploitation, as well as members of the LGBTQIA+ community.