Jacki James, founder of Kindness Matters, joins Jaclyn in this episode for an authentic and important discussion about bullying in schools, and how kindness can alter lives.
Trigger warning. This interview discusses a specific person's experience with bullying, suicide, and trauma.
Jacki James spent 28 years as a high school teacher and 4 years as the UIL Academics Coordinator for her campus. In 2014, she lost her 13 year old son, Peyton, to suicide after he’d been bullied for years. His death changed her focus and her path.
Through her grief, she created a program called Kindness Matters, which is a pro-kindness campaign whose mission is to change the world one act of kindness at a time. As the Founder of Kindness Matters, Jacki has worked to create a global change in how people treat each other. She has spread the Kindness Matters message and Peyton’s story to over 200 schools and student organizations across the country. She spearheaded the endowment of a scholarship in Peyton’s name at Texas A&M University School of Veterinary Medicine and has created a social media presence of over 50,000 followers where she reminds people of the “how” and “why” of kindness.
Because of her work through Kindness Matters, Jacki has been highly recognized. In 2019 she received the Legend Award from Recognize Good. the Ursa Major Award for Community Service from Alpha Phi International Fraternity in 2020 and has been honored by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, the Texas Organ Sharing Alliance, Lone Star Circle of Life, and Nascar Xfinity for her efforts in suicide prevention and organ donation education.
She is now retired from teaching and dedicates her time to honoring Peyton and spreading the message that kindness truly does matter.
This podcast is one of the many ways we live out our organization's mission to educate and inspire people to choose kindness. Visit our site kindness.org and sign up to become a part of our global community which spans more than 100 countries. It's free to join and when you do you'll be the first to get access to our latest research, tools, and even episodes of this podcast. Let's build a kinder world, together. Contact us at podcast@kindness.org or on social at @kindnessorg.
Important links from this week's episode:
kindness.org
kindnessmatterspj.wixsite.com/kindnessmatters
Follow Jacki
IG: @kindness.matters
Facebook: @kindnessmatters13
Credits
Host: Jaclyn Lindsey
Guest: Jacki James
Producer: Melissa Malone
Music Composition: Chris Christiana
Design: Ben Gibson, Christine Do
Transcript of this episode can be found here: whykindness.simplecast.com/episodes/jacki-james/transcript
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