From music festivals to family camps, one nonprofit works to prevent suicide

It all started with Paul Thomas “PT” Hohag selling T-shirts out of the back of his Pontiac Grand Am and talking to anyone who would listen to his story. 

Hohag’s father, Thomas, died by suicide in January 2013. The months that followed were fraught with grief, and Hohag realized there was an all-too-common narrative with death by suicide: the focus was placed on how the individual died, rather than how they lived. Hohag wanted to change this.

“What if I could share who my dad was, how he lived, to kind of use that as my inspiration for how I wanted to live?” Hohag said.

Beginnings of the LIVIN Foundation

Hohag founded the LIVIN Foundation, a suicide prevention nonprofit based in Anoka, in March 2015 as a way to provide space for people to share their own stories with mental illness and support those who have lost loved ones to suicide. 

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LIVIN initially started in places like schools, including Eden Prairie High School (EPHS), where Hohag said he would visit classes and share his story and LIVIN’s message of working to destigmatize mental health and suicide through conversations. Hohag said he would also give out LIVIN shirts and wristbands to students, which they would still be wearing when he would come to visit EPHS the following years.

“The fact that schools nowadays, and certainly like Eden Prairie, are willing to have that type of conversation in schools and whatnot, and be able to kind of be on the forefront of mental wellness for students is awesome,” Hohag said.

LIVIN, while still being a “little engine that could” according to Hohag, has been quickly building up steam in the surrounding metro area and has found its footing as a community movement through a variety of programs and partnerships.

LIVIN’s programming

Some of the most significant growth for LIVIN can be attributed to the business community increasingly believing in the nonprofit’s message, Hohag said.

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“I think there’s been a big groundswell in the business community as of the last, I would say, two or three years, where the business community … (has) recognized that this topic is an important one for their employees and in their place of work,” Hohag said.

This growing belief from businesses helped spark LivWell Partners, an organization that “spun out” of LIVIN and provides mental health engagement solutions for businesses, such as suicide prevention training and keynote speakers.

Kaitlin Daeges, an advisory board member for LIVIN and founder of LivWell, created LivWell a few months ago and hopes it will become the go-to solution for businesses to foster growth and transformation around mental health discussions in the workplace. Daeges, the former executive director of LIVIN, branched out to create LivWell to provide more specialized services.

Daeges, a 2002 Eden Prairie High School graduate, lost her father to suicide at age 12, a tragedy that shaped her connection to the cause. She now lives in Chanhassen.

“There was a clear need that what we were doing needed to be split out from a nonprofit (like LIVIN), especially when you’re going into businesses,” Daeges said.

Daeges added that, despite the fact that she is not as directly involved in LIVIN as she once was, LivWell will still be a main partner of LIVIN and has chosen it to be LivWell’s charity of choice.

On top of LIVIN’s partnership with LivWell, the nonprofit offers the LIVIN Community Fund, which provides financial assistance to families or individuals in need because of factors like the loss of a loved one to suicide or ongoing mental health treatments. Daeges said LIVIN has given financial support to people for things like rent, tuition, groceries and household expenses.

LIVIN also provides free suicide prevention training called “Question, Persuade, and Refer” (QPR) to surrounding communities. Considered the mental health equivalent of CPR, Daeges said QPR teaches the warning signs of a mental health crisis and what should be done in response.

“I think that’s where a lot of us fall short is we know that John or Joe, they seemed off or something wasn’t right, but we all kind of struggle with what to say, or is it OK to say anything,” Daeges said. “This training, … we do role playing and training around how to ask somebody if they’re okay and struggling, if they have a plan for suicide, if they’ve contemplated it, but more importantly, how to get them to safety.”

Another primary LIVIN program is its retreats, both for individuals and for families. LIVIN specifically offers Camp LIVIN, a two-day camp held annually in August for families that have lost someone to suicide and includes therapeutic activities, like nature hikes, swimming and yoga, to allow families a space to reconnect in a supportive atmosphere.

The LIVIN Music Festival

LIVIN’s signature event is the LIVIN Music Festival, slated for Friday and Saturday, Sept. 12-13, at ERX Motor Park in Elk River.

The festival was formed after Hohag noticed that other organizations often have a signature annual event to showcase their mission. Music has always been central to LIVIN, and Hohag has an extensive background in radio, including as a DJ for country station 102.9 The Wolf. Creating a music festival, he said, was a natural fit.

“It’s meant to be more than just a music festival,” Daeges said. “The tagline that we’ve been using is, “Not just a music festival, it’s #LIVIN.” It’s meant to be a weekend of coming together, community, all surrounded with the common good of mental health.”

This year, the LIVIN Music Festival will feature country acts Russ Parrish & The Lone Oaks, Kat Perkins and the Country Roads Band tribute show on Friday, with Jason Paulson Band, Shane Martin, Cory Waller & The Wicked Things, Derek Jones & 50 South, and headliner Sawyer Brown on Saturday.

Beyond Saturday’s music, the festival will include camping, food trucks, a barbecue competition, a cornhole tournament and a dove release.

“(The LIVIN Music Festival) allows a group of people like our community to kind of get on the mountaintop and say, ‘Look, if you’re not in a good spot, it’s okay to not be OK and that we are going to heal together,’” Hohag said. “’If you’ve lost somebody, you’re going to realize that you’re not alone because there’s a lot of people that are in this same spot.’”

While Friday and Saturday evening concerts are ticketed, Saturday daytime events are free. Tickets can be purchased online or at the door.

Daeges and Hohag expect around 1,000 people to come to the music festival this weekend, a telltale sign of the nonprofit’s growth since its beginnings in 2015. To Hohag however, the size of the audience doesn’t matter as LIVIN’s message is still the same.

“You never know when you’re in a group of people, whether it’s at a music festival with 1,000 people or a classroom of 20, like you never know who and when your message is going to inspire somebody in a good way to ask for help or to reach out to somebody that they think might be struggling,” Hohag said.

Learn more about the LIVIN Foundation on its website.