The Women’s Center of Tarrant County hosted its 16th annual Victory over Violence 5K Run/Walk Saturday with help from the Alpha Chi Omega sorority. 

The Women’s Center director of public relations Susan Fine said the purpose of the run was to raise money to help victims of violence to heal and be able to live productive lives.

“We work with clients and victims who have been sexually assaulted, been sexually abused or other acts of violence,” Fine said.

The center provides services to almost 100,000 victims of violence each year, she said. The Women’s Center’s services are not just for women, but they are available to men and children as well.

Alpha Chi Omega works closely with the Women’s Center for its philanthropy, Alpha Chi Omega President Erin Gorman said. The sorority raised over $40,000 for the Women’s Center during its Mother’s Weekend in March.

Tarrant County district attorney Joe Shannon participates in the Victory over Violence Walk/Run each year in order to support the Women’s Center.

“We work with them (the Women’s Center) on a daily basis. Our family violence unit is in close connection with them. And then we have Crimes Against Children (Unit) that works with the Women’s Center and also a couple of other organizations along the same line,” Shannon said. 

The run is one of the Women’s Center’s biggest fundraisers, Fine said. All proceeds will go directly to the anti-violence program so it can continue providing services for free. 

“It was just a way for us to say we are against all this violence, and so we started the Victory over Violence Walk,” Fine said.

Alpha Chi Omega’s members help promote Victory over Violence by passing out and hanging flyers around Fort Worth, she said.

According to the Victory over Violence website, participants were able to register individually or as part of a team. Prizes were up for grabs for the participants who were the largest fundraisers, fastest runners and put together the largest team.

“We generally bring a pretty large team. We have won the prize for the most number of participants for the last three or four years, and we hope we win again this year,” Shannon said. 

Sixteen years ago there were maybe 500 participants for the first Victory over Violence Race, Fine said. This year’s race drew the largest crowd to date with close to 3,700 participants.