MARCH 2024 CHARITY OF THE MONTH
In partnership with the Minnesota Wild, we are the sponsor of the Minnesota Wild Charity of the Month Program. Throughout the NHL season, we feature a new charity each month. This months selected charity is Shout Out Loud!
About Shout Out Loud
Shout Out Loud is a Minneapolis-based organization dedicated to suicide prevention and mental wellness. Founded in 2018 by Laura Dizon and Dr. Lisa Lovelace, it focuses on raising awareness, normalizing conversations about suicide prevention, and teaching coping skills. The organization targets children and young adults in the Twin Cities area, offering resources and connections to wellness programs. Shout Out Loud hosts annual family-friendly events featuring games, music, and activities aimed at improving mental wellness, all powered by a team of volunteers. Their efforts extend to participating in local events to promote mental health and suicide prevention further.
“Suicide prevention is not just about recognizing and intervening when someone is already in a crisis. It’s about providing people with access to adequate resources, education, and care to prevent these crises. This is why we have to take a PROACTIVE approach to suicide prevention.”
Shout Out Loud’s Mission
The mission of Shout Out Loud is to bring awareness to suicide prevention in our local community and schools, normalize the conversation about suicide prevention as well as teach coping skills and everyday activities that help with a child’s mental wellness. Shout Out Loud was founded in 2018 by local artist Laura Dizon and Psychologist Dr. Lisa Lovelace after the loss of Laura’s younger brother Aaron Dizon to suicide.
Get Involved
Shout Out Loud provides an annual free and family-friendly resource and awareness event in the Twin Cities that teaches children and teens real life coping skills and to ‘Shout Out Loud’ for help. While using creative and expressive arts like painting, music, yoga, and sports; over 2000 attendees left each event with local resources, better knowledge of suicide prevention, as well as valuable coping strategies. Reducing stigma, building resilience, and providing coping skills are vital aspects of our programming. Our target populations include children and young adults in the Twin Cities area. We want to expand our reach by going directly into our local schools empowering students with tools and strategies for maintaining mental wellness.
Suicide Prevention & Awareness
We talk often about knowing the signs of suicide and how important it is in suicide prevention. If we know the signs, we can better recognize the signs in loved ones, and can intervene if and when we recognize them. This is all very true. But what we don’t talk about enough is that while in some cases there are signs… in many cases there aren’t. For hotlines and crisis intervention to be effective it requires us to know that someone is in a crisis.
At Shout Out Loud their approach tends to be different as they believe that suicide doesn’t always have a ‘look’. It could be anyone! This is why we need to normalize the conversation around mental health and suicide. We need to be talking about suicide prevention in schools, in businesses, and in homes. We need to make mental health care and community resources accessible to everyone and we need to provide our communities with adequate resources, care, and education to prevent people from reaching a crisis. Because the people who need help sometimes look a lot like the people who don’t need help! Taking a proactive approach to suicide prevention means that preventive measures start long before the need for hotlines or crisis intervention begins.
You can help to Shout Out Loud about suicide prevention. Follow Shout Out Loud on social media, mark your calendars for their FREE and family friendly resource and awareness event on Saturday Set. 28th, 2024 in St. Louis Park, visit them online to volunteer and/or donate to support our mission.
