RICHMOND HEIGHTS, Ohio—The annual daddy-daughter dance, hosted by Alive on Purpose, is an event fathers and daughters look forward to each year.
- Alive on Purpose aims to help youth struggle with depression and suicidal thoughts
- Alive on Purpose hosts an annual daddy-daughter dance
- Works with Cleveland elementary schools to connect kids to counselors and enourage community involvement
And, it’s part of a program that brings families together.
“We connect fathers and daughters together so that suicide doesn’t become an option, because suicide and fatherless homes are very well connected… that’s just a statistic that’s out there, and so we help hundreds of dads and daughters every single year connect,” said Latoyia Jones, suicide prevention advocate.
In 2013 Latoyia jones started Alive on Purpose — a non-profit that aims to help youth struggling with depression and suicidal thoughts.
“So, the organization started with five girls, girls who were very close to me in a lot of ways… a couple were family members and they all had things going on, so we sat down, we met over a course of weeks, and really, the common denominator was pain,” said Jones. “Tt was girls who had sad stories and rough times and I started the website and the organization to really just uplift those girls to start …then of course it spread throughout the city of Cleveland, and now we help hundreds of girls every single year.”
Alive on Purpose works with elementary schools in the Cleveland area to connect kids to counselors and encourage people to get involved in their communities.
“So, we do school programming to help girls, as well as we just had a sleepover at my home the other day,” said Jones. “We had girls here just having fun and essentially just being a family… help them by sharing my experiences and having other members of the community share their experiences and hope that it will stick and help them have a better life.”
Jones tried to take her own life twice, and now her survival is helping to save lives.
“For me, my personal suicidal thoughts or just thinking that I didn’t want to live, was the motivation for me to want to help people,” said Jones. “I just didn’t like people not living fulfilled lives, I didn’t like them not having access to resources, l didn’t like hearing the stories about people who just didn’t have hope…I wanted to be that advocate for other people.”