Fundraising for improv programme to boost kids' Mental Health

A groundbreaking initiative aimed at improving the mental health of New Zealand’s youth is gaining momentum. ​ Wade Jackson, founder of Covert Theatre in Ponsonby, Auckland, has developed the "Resilience Playground," a program that combines improvisational theatre techniques with principles of positive psychology to equip children with essential life skills.

The Resilience Playground targets children aged 8 to 12, a critical age before they transition to high school. ​The program uses exercises from improv theatre—similar to the style seen in long running TV show "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" ​—to teach mindfulness, confidence, emotional intelligence, and resilience. ​According to Jackson, improv fosters connection, creativity, and the ability to navigate ambiguity, all while encouraging children to embrace their individuality and maintain their sense of playfulness. ​

The program has been trialed in schools across New Zealand, receiving overwhelmingly positive feedback. ​ To expand its reach, Jackson and his team have recorded the program and made it available online, allowing teachers to integrate it into classrooms without requiring additional training. ​Schools of all sizes, from New Zealand’s smallest to its largest primary school, have already piloted the initiative. ​

Jackson, who has a unique background in both performing arts and health science, initially developed these techniques for corporate team-building workshops and executive coaching. ​ After years of success in the corporate world, he decided to adapt the methods for children, recognising the importance of instilling these skills early in life. ​ “It’s cheaper, easier, and smarter to build a creative child than to fix a broken adult,” Jackson explained.

To ensure the program is accessible to all schools, Jackson’s charitable trust is fundraising to cover the $5,000 annual cost per school. ​On September 16, the trust will host a Giving Day, where corporate sponsors will match every public donation dollar-for-dollar. ​ Sponsors include BMS IT, Sandfield, Radius Care, Chorus, Mazda, and Forsyth Barr. ​Jackson emphasised that every contribution counts, as it not only funds the program but also supports the development of additional content, such as communication skills and collaboration exercises. ​The initiative has already attracted international interest, with a school in England expressing interest in adopting the program. ​ 

For more information or to donate visit:

https://www.charidy.com/coverttheatre/Wade

https://www.resilienceplayground.org/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
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Speaker 2 (00:17):
Sometimes ideas can come from the most unlikely of places.
Doesn't mean that they're not a good idea, just can
be surprising sometimes where ideas that end up working have
their origins from. And in terms of an idea to
impact the mental health of our young people in a

(00:38):
positive way, a blake by the name of Wade Jackson
from Covert Theater. This is an improviational improvisational theater in
Auckland improv You might have seen something like that, you
know whose line is it anyway? And still that sort
of stuff that's improv theater. Wade has had an idea
to do with kids' mental health in New Zealand and

(01:01):
he's doing some really amazing work about it. When I
wanted to get him on the show because he's a
very special reason why Wade joy Now, Wade, good evening
to you, so way to tell us what's the idea,
where did it come from, what's it doing.

Speaker 3 (01:16):
And why we're doing. A program called the Resilience Playground,
which is used in combining the art of improvisation with
positive positive psychology, and we've created it. We've been running
the program for a number of years at the COVID
Theater and we just had some great feedback. We ran it,
we traveled it in a couple of schools, again great feedback,

(01:37):
and now we've recorded all the recorded the program and
we'll put it all online so that we can reach
schools nationwide.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
So tell us a bit more about the program, then,
who's participating in it and what does it do.

Speaker 3 (01:52):
So it's so it's like people know whose line is it? Anyway,
it provides comedy, that's performance side, but if you look
at all the training exercises that allow you to do that,
the essence of improvisation is really about connection. So you're
it's it's an active form of mindfulness. You're being in
the present moment with no idea of what's going to
happen next. You've got to give up control, You've got

(02:12):
able to sacrifice your ego for the sake of the team.
You're going to be comfortable ambiguity, there's confidence, it's a
whole bunch of life skills that come from training in
the art of improv We've underpinned that with some other
exercises drawing on different modalities, so we're from mindfulness and
meditation and things like that, and gratitude and we're packaged

(02:34):
all up and that is what we've put them to
put it all online and so that schools can sign
up for it and the teachers don't have to go
into a training course. They can just play those videos
inside the classroom, so we can reach a whole bunch
of schools nationwide. We're launching it next week, but we've
already got a few of the schools on pilots. So
we've got one of the smallert schools in New Zealand

(02:55):
right through to the largest primary school in New Zealand.
Because the program targets eight to twelve year olds to
give them the live schools before they head into high school.

Speaker 2 (03:03):
Improv, comedy, improv theater, wonderful entertainment. But where did the
only idea you come from to turn this into a
program to put into schools.

Speaker 3 (03:14):
Well, I've made a career and of not just doing
it as an acting one, but I've made a creator
taking into the corporate. So back in the nineties, I was,
you know, ste of the improv bandits and the COVID theater,
and I had business need to saying, look, we love
the show, how do I get my people working together
like that? And so I started creating team building workshops,
presentation coaching, and then got fully dragged into it. It's

(03:36):
all going very well, and to people started asking me
tricky questions like hey, wait, this this great. How does
this work? And why does this work? And I'm like,
I don't know just what we do on stage. So
I had to go back to school and get my
post grad and health science. I already had postgrad in drama,
so I had got that unusual background of both health
science and also performing arts, and so I really kind

(03:58):
of combined those and every time I was running the
corporate programs here and around the world. So I've had
the privilege of teaching this in Japan and China and Malaysia,
and AIDS in Australia and so forth. Silicon Valley, Singapore
Armed Forces, and it was growing really well. And then
there was just like people adults will always say, hey,
this is great. Have you got anything for kids? And
I was like no, because at that point I was

(04:20):
growing a global business. And then yeah, comes twenty sixteen,
I decided to more just kind of focus more, get
back to my roots and get and open another theater,
which we've done in Ponsonby. And then I thought, well, well,
now that I've got the theater, I actually can have
that time to create something for the youth. And that's
what we did. So it really came from teaching adults first.

(04:42):
So the same exercises that are in the Residiance Playground
I also use with CEOs and senior executives.

Speaker 2 (04:47):
Yeah, corporate retreats, corporate CEOs, that's sort of one thing,
but when you're doing it with kids and it'd be
a bit different. So what are some of the outcomes
that you've seen from the from the young people who've
participated in the Resilience Playground.

Speaker 3 (05:03):
Well, one of the things is as we get older,
I say, an eight year old, nine year old, you know, confident,
they don't have that kind they're not so self conscious.
As we hit like ten, eleven, twelve, we become a
lot more self conscious and aware of what other people
may think of us, and we lose our creativity, We
lose our kind of you know, we get socially conditioned.
You know, oh you can't you know why be're drawn

(05:24):
outside the circles. Why you're drawn an orange snow man.
That's not right, they're white. You know that kind of thing.
We get socially conditioned to lose our creativity, we lose
as we get older, we lose our sense of playfulness
as we become adults. And so one of the biggest
things that we've really seen with the Resilience Playground is
that kind of concept like it's okay to be me.
People get comfortable in their own skin and they don't

(05:47):
lose that sense of play They kind of go, actually, no,
this is what we need to hang on to. So
with adults, I kind of go, look, I don't teach
you to do improv I help you unlearn all the
social blocks you've had over many, many, many years. So
it was in this playground that's based on the idea
that it's cheaper, easier, and smarter to build a young child,
creative child, rather than trying to fix a broken audut.

(06:10):
So let's give the kids the tools and the skills
that they need in adulthood earlier.

Speaker 2 (06:16):
Now, Wade, you've got a bit of a fundraising push
going on, So look, what do you need and how
can we help O?

Speaker 3 (06:23):
Well, so what so the program costs five thousand dollars
for school three years. So if you think about the
average school roll in New zealand's about three hundred kids,
so you're talking about maybe three cents a week per child.
But what we want to do is we want a
fundraise so that schools don't have to pay anything because
it's not cheap putting something like this together. It's cost
it's a fortune and we're a small channlble trust. So
we're having a giving day on the sixteenth of September,

(06:45):
and basically we've got a whole bunch of corporate sponsorships,
so they will double any donation anybody makes. So the
general public puts in ten dollars, that will automatically become
twenty dollars because of that. The matching donors that we've
got lined up, We're very grateful to be MSIIT Chorus,
We've got Mas, the Quadrant, Radius Care, Sandfield, forsythe Bar,

(07:05):
there are matching donors and so yes, if people could
put in a donation, it means that what we can
also do is we can constantly add more content and resources.
So the program looks at creativity, emotional intelligence, resilience being
present another word for mindfulness and that connection and collaboration
as well. We want to add things around communication skills,

(07:26):
all that kind of stuff, but we need some funding
and support to do that so the public get behind this.
There's no reason why we couldn't have every primary school
in New Zealand doing this program.

Speaker 2 (07:35):
Brilliant So look, tell us where can people go? What's
the address? How can they get involved? How can they help?

Speaker 3 (07:41):
So you can go to covidfeed dot com. That will
link you to a website charity dot com, forward slash
covid Theater and that's that's the website. But you just
go to covidfed dot com you'll find we've got all
the information there on how people can support. An exciting
thing is We've even just had at cetera request today
from a school in England going hey, how do we
get this? So that's quite exciting.

Speaker 2 (08:03):
Fantastic. Hey Wade, thank you so much for coming and
talking to us tonight. We're going to the link to
all of the details on the Resilience Playground on the
Nudders Club Facebook page. That's at Facebook dot com, forward
slash the Nudders Club NZ. You can find it very easily.
And Wade look, thank you also too for all of
this effort and what you're doing to try and support

(08:26):
the young people of New Zealand and their mental health.
You're doing fantastic.

Speaker 3 (08:29):
Thank you, Thank you very much. And there's one of
those situations where every dollar does count. Because you put
in a dollar, it gets doubled. So we do appreciate
all the support. Thank you.

Speaker 2 (08:36):
Way Jackson there from Covert Theater talking about the fundraising
effort for the Resilience Playground. We are going to take
a break. When we come back, we'll introduce you to
our guest this evening. All that to come here tonight
on the Nudders Club.

Speaker 1 (08:51):
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