Students for Survivors Club Raises Awareness About Human Trafficking in Santa Barbara County

High schoolers are raising awareness about human trafficking in Santa Barbara County — a place where minors as young as 12 are victimized.

California has the highest number of human trafficking cases in the United States, according to the FBI, and Santa Barbara County acts as a hotspot for trade-offs due to its location between the two major cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco. 

According to the Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office, there have been more than 229 survivors of sex trafficking in the county since 2017, 30 percent of whom are younger than 18 years old. 

“A lot of people being trafficked don’t even realize they’re being trafficked,” said 11th-grader Elana Rowan, who started the Students for Survivors club at San Marcos High School with her friend, Chase Thompson.

“They give up their safety to get love and attention from people, not knowing that they’re putting themselves in dangerous, abusive situations,” Rowan explained. 

Over the summer, Rowan and Thompson were two of six interns with the county’s Strategic Alliance to Fight Exploitation (SAFE), a group of regional partners that works under the county’s Human Trafficking Task Force to help combat sex and labor trafficking.

SAFE operates a fund that is allocated to organizations working to prevent human trafficking, assist at-risk populations, and protect survivors — all in the name of realizing the county’s three-year Strategic Plan to end the buying and selling of human beings in Santa Barbara.  

SAFE is the “gas in the tank” to especially address the exploitation of children, said Kayla Petersen. Petersen is a Leadership Integrator with Kingdom Causes Inc. (KCI), which was contracted by the county’s DA’s Office to see the plan come to fruition.   

Peterson and Jeff Shaffer, KCI’s Santa Barbara Regional Catalyst, felt passionately that high schoolers should be involved in SAFE, to inspire them to take on the work later in life. 

Through their new club, these students want to educate others about human trafficking, as well as create communities of love and belonging, providing spaces for students who may feel isolated and alone — a demographic that is particularly vulnerable to being trafficked.  

“We have people who have been doing this work forever in the county, and it’s impassioning to see young people get more involved,” Peterson said. 

Rowan mentioned they had more than 100 signatures to sign up for their club, and over the course of their two first meetings, with help from faculty advisor Michael Thrasher, they’ve taught their members about what human trafficking is and what SAFE is doing through engaging activities.

“It’s important to bring it up to younger minds, especially because kids our age and not much younger than us are victims,” Rowan said. 

Eventually, they want to expand to other high schools and middle schools in the county. But for now, they’re building on their current momentum. Last Sunday, the students participated in a fundraising event for SAFE, where they had their own booth to talk about their club and meet potential speakers. Later in the year, Fox Wine Co. is holding a fundraising event at their winery in the Funk Zone, where the students have been offered to set up a booth.

To learn more about SAFE and donate, visit safesbc.org.