The mission is to provide financial and emotional support for survivors of suicide loss and individuals with lived experience of suicide, while engaging in community prevention through mental health education and advocacy to support healthier futures.
We are passionate about our goals and our mission, and this is why we minimize overhead to just enough to sustain our daily operations. While we fundraise and accept donations for a variety of uses, all of which are dedicated to our mission, we allocate the vast majority of funds raised for direct financial assistance for survivors of suicide loss, helping defray and alleviate the unexpected cost burdens associated with their loss.
To accomplish our goals, we fundraise through participation in many community events, including festivals, concerts, fundraisers, memorials, and remembrances, as well as providing event sponsorships and speakers when such events align with our mission.
Suck It! Suicide is the outreach program of Six Feet Over, which also does the bulk of the fundraising for Six Feet Over through merchandise sales and in person donations. Suck It! Suicide (SIS) specializes in community outreach, doing so in unconventional ways and places.
We have chosen to focus our outreach in places that generally aren't often at the top of other mental health and suicide prevention organizations lists to do so. SIS is often seen at community festivals, Pride events, concerts, local shows and sometimes just hanging out at a bar. Our founder, Kate Hardy, never felt comfortable in the mainstream...of anything really, so when she created this program she made it for communities that wouldn't seek the information on their own because of: stigma, comfort levels, knowing what to search, who to ask, shame, etc.
Kate also felt that there needed to be something that was less "pastel and kittens hanging from a branch poster", and something people would identify with, find cool, and be comfortable approaching because it didn't appear or present as a conventional mental health and suicide prevention non profit. Over time, we have found that folks from all walks of lives identify with SIS and its culture, and we will love them all!
We see mental health and suicide prevention as something you CAN ask questions about, you CAN admit to dealing with, and you should be able to do so without judgment from others or fear of being labeled dangerous, 'crazy', unlovable, a burden, ignorant, or weird. SIS takes pride in supporting every person who needs it, no matter what they look like, what they believe, who they love, or how they identify. We also believe that laughter heals, and we make sure our outreach table is filled with laughs along with the hugs and occasional tears.
SIS is real people, giving real space, real time, real love and real knowledge to other very real people, while having a great time, selling merch and raising money to help people in need.
We educate, train, and equip individuals with helpful and relevant resources, to encourage awareness, understanding, and conversation about suicide.
We cultivate a visible presence in the community through collaboration with artists and local businesses, to make our work and our passion better known.
We distribute our branded products and awareness materials, to both further our visible presence and help fund our programming.
We assist individuals with lived experience and their families to ease the difficulty and pain of their grieving and healing processes.
Kate is the survivor of 9 deaths by suicide including her mom in 2003. She accidentally created Suck It! Suicide in 2012 after a one off fundraiser for another non profit resulted in extra shirts with what is now the SIS logo, and subsequent suicide of someone in her community named Jason. Kate is weird, passionate, and finds writing about herself extremely uncomfortable, especially in the third person. With the encouragement of her friends and family Katie founded Six Feet Over. Kate is a wife and mom, living in Livonia MI.
Liz has loved ones who have mental health concerns, as well as having many other experiences that have driven her to participate on our board. Liz is a student at LSU and works as a librarian for a correctional institute in Ohio, living in Monroe, MI with her husband, cats and many, many, many books.
Carlos is the survivor of the loss of his God Mother and family friend Kathy Simpson, Kate’s mom. Carlos currently works in accounting with his family through their company, Carlex, based out of Detroit, MI. Carlos currently lives in the Detroit Metro area with his wife Kristen (who is way out of his league) and his dog Bullet (the unofficial mascot of SFO).
Nicole graduated from Michigan State University with a BA in English literature describing a deep desire to understand “the artistic version of the human experience.” Nicole went on to work several careers including bridging cultural differences while living in Brazil, as a consultant in global intelligence/protection of global assets, and marketing.
After the loss of her eldest son due to a genetic disorder, Nicole reached the darkest point of her life. Connections with others along with an incredibly talented therapist helped to turn life around. Nicole decided to return to school and earn a Masters and subsequent doctoral degree in Humanistic, clinical, psychology.
During her first clinical internship at Affirmations LGBT cultural center in Ferndale, MI, Nicole witnessed many incidents of suicide and self-harm that seemed to be driven by the disconnect between familial and cultural expectations and the desire to be one’s free, authentic self. Since then, Dr. Law has devoted a large part of her career to helping reduce the risk of suicide in LGBTQ+ youth. Dr. Law is a speaker / advocate, Director of Clinical Training, Director of Diversity, and founder of her practice, Aloe Integrative Psychology Group.
Dr. Law lives in Rochester Hills, MI with her two kids, two dogs, and two kittens. Although she prefers odd numbers, she can’t seem to escape the number 2.
Ian is an experienced SIS volunteer for events and has experience in the music industry. Ian lost one of his best friends in 2012, Jason Lockwood, which propelled him into his loss survivorship. Ian has a great many connections to artists, venues and booking agents after having been involved in the music industry for most of his adult life.He believes that SFO/SIS can create long lasting partnerships that can increase our presence through the community and help bring the conversation to new places and people. Ian currently lives in Metro Detroit with his girlfriend Kaitlyn and their dogs.
An award-winning director and writer dedicated to crafting groundbreaking documentary features. Her current project, THE S WORD, is a documentary that tackles one of the most cloistered issues of our time through the emotional stories of suicide attempt and loss survivors. She tours the country speaking and using her films to raise awareness of mental health issues. She is co-founder, with her husband Doug Blush, of MadPix Inc., an LA-based production company dedicated to producing character-driven stories that create global impact and social change. She is a graduate of the University of Michigan and received an M.F.A. from the University of Southern California.
Hudson is an expert in behavioral health with cross sector experience in state and local, federal, higher education, and justice. He has deep expertise in designing behavioral health systems of care, community support services, diversion programs, and suicide prevention efforts. Hudson has earned a reputation for innovation that spans traditional boundaries to create inspired solutions to complex problems that are sustainable and impactful. At Deloitte, he is a Specialist Leader where he supports the Oregon Health Authority’s Behavioral Health Division and is a DE&I leader in California. Before joining Deloitte, he worked for San Diego County as a Population Health Strategist in Behavioral Health Services and for the California Children’s Hospital Association on statewide behavioral health initiatives. He is a California attorney, holds an MBA and an MA in marketing. He is on the board of directors for the American Association of Suicidology and Six Feet Over.
Benny Capaul, is a 4th generation funeral director in Ida, Michigan. He is a graduate of Wayne State University’s Mortuary Science school. Benny is active on multiple boards, supplying his knowledge and expertise on the topics of death, funeral services and best practices, including Gabby’s Ladder and The Michigan Funeral Directors Association. In addition to his work and board activities he is a husband, father, punk rocker, and podcast co-creator and co-host of ‘Let’s Talk About Death./p>
With over a decade of event production history, Mike has a knack for identifying, collecting, and executing the organizational and creative details that are needed to produce successful events.
Having worked with dozens of Michigan-based non-profit organizations, Mike has assisted in raising hundreds of thousands of dollars in crucial funding. He is immensely humbled and excited to be on the board of Six Feet Over and is passionate about cultivating new fundraising opportunities and seamless experiences that exceed expectations, raise awareness, and will be remembered.
Dave is our token Upper Peninsula of Michigan member. He is a suicide loss survivor after witnessing the death of a close friend and learned about the lack of resources for those left behind. Dave became involved with Six Feet Over in partnership with the establishment of a fund he created in conjunction with the Community Foundation of Marquette to support Marquette County families experiencing suicide loss. With over 30 years of involvement in a variety of non-profit organizations and boards as a volunteer, none of which was court mandated, Dave is hoping to utilize some of his experience in support of SFO as it grows. In the working world, Dave is a partner and general manager for a physical therapy clinic and therapy staffing company, along with the volunteer Executive Director of the UP Hospice Foundation and founder of UP Children’s Therapy. Previous to going independent (i.e. downsized) he was the Vice President of Operations and Foundation Director for Bell Hospital in Ishpeming, MI. He lives with wife Joy, and bulldogs Lola and Henry in Marquette MI only 2 blocks from the cheapest bar in town, and Lake Superior two blocks the other way
Leela Chandrasekar is a recent graduate from Central Michigan University College of Medicine. Completing her senior year rotations at St. John Hospital in Detroit in 2018/2019 and now moving on to her pediatric residency program in Chicago. Passionate about working with children, she has learned a great deal about mental health from the adolescent population in the Detroit area. Leela is our resident medical advisor badass!
David, unlike Liz, has nothing but professional pictures that can be found via Google. David acts as the counsel for Six Feet Over and advises us on all things legal. He concentrates his professional practice in deceptive business practices, debt collection harassment, class actions and representative actions, business organization and litigation, civil rights, criminal defense, and credit report errors. He has worked as part of the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office and Washtenaw County as a public defender, as well as working for a private defense firm before joining The Parnell Firm. We affectionately refer to David as The King of Ireland, just go with it but if you have questions about this, ask Liz.
If you or someone you know is in crisis, you have options. Please text "SIS" to 741-741 to speak with a trained counselor; call or text 988 for the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline; call 911; or visit your nearest Emergency Room.