We were lucky to catch up with Jacki James recently and have shared our conversation below.

Jacki, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What sort of legacy are you hoping to build. What do you think people will say about you after you are gone, what do you hope to be remembered for?

I hope that my legacy will be one that helps change the world and make it better. After my son, Peyton, died, I realized that our society was not doing a very good job at teaching and showing kindness to one another. That is what Peyton needed the most – simple kindness. Instead, he was bullied relentlessly for all the things that made him special and unique. This, coupled with mental health issues, caused him to take his life at the age of 13. I came to see that the children who had tormented him had been taught that it was ok to treat others badly. Kindness Matters was the grass roots effort to combat that and we continue to try to show people that the only way we can make the world better is by treating each person with kindness and understanding. For the last seven years, I have worked to share the Kindness Matters message through social media, public speaking, school assemblies, media interviews, and scholarship programs at both The University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University. But that is not the end of my legacy or of Peytons. It’s only the beginning. You see, our legacies will not be something that can be measured or quantified. It will be in the subtle changes of the people who hear the Kindness Matters message and take it to heart. It will be in the kindness that grows from hearing Peyton’s story and from believing that we can change the world one act of kindness at a time.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers?

Kindness Matters began after the death of my 13 year old son, Peyton. After years of being tormented by bullies at school and after suffering with ADHD, depression and anxiety, Peyton took his life. After he died, I realized that kids have been taught since preschool not to be a bully, but no bully recognized themselves as such. What we have failed to do is teach kids how to show real kindness to one another and adults haven’t been very good role models either. In this gap is where Kindness Matters was born. The program is not an “anti-bullying” campaign, but rather a “pro-kindness” one. If, by sharing Peyton’s story and speaking about how we can increase the kindness in the world, I can prevent even one child from feeling the way my son did or if I can save one mother from the grief that I carry, then I feel like I’m honoring my son and doing my part to make the world a kinder place.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

As with most people over the last couple of years, the Covid 19 pandemic was a huge obstacle for us. Most of our outreach is done through school assemblies and presentations to groups of young people. Prior to the global shut down, we had brought the Kindness Matters message to over 125 groups across the county. In March of 2020, we had 6 school presentations planned for the remainder of the semester. Due to the pandemic, those were immediately canceled. As schools are only now opening back up to group activities, we have been rather dormant for the last two years. This stand still caused us to regroup and reevaluate our purpose and our mission. We still believe that kindness is the key to creating a better world. However, we have had to pivot in how we do reach our target audience. The biggest part of that has been to increase our social media presence through Facebook, Instagram, and Tik Tok (although I’m still trying to get the hang of this one!). We are also ramping up our efforts to publish a kindness curriculum and to gather stories of kindness for an upcoming book.
Thankfully, we’ve been able to maintain our global presence throughout the pandemic and it has grown in some areas. Now, we just have to be flexible enough to adjust to how the world operates in a world that is still dealing with concerns from the pandemic. I’m confident that we will persevere and come out better and stronger than before!

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

In the world of school assemblies and anti-bullying messages, reputation is everything. Kindness Matters has one of the most positive reputations in our arena for many reasons. The most important one is our honesty. In sharing Peyton’s story, there is no “sugar coating” and no embellishment. The story stands on its own and is a tale that focuses squarely on the need for more kindness in this world. One of the other ways that we build and maintain our reputation is by providing unbiased and non political facts and information about bullying, suicide and the ways kindness can be spread. It is of vital importance that we give solid, fact based advice when people ask us for help. We’ve been fortunate in that our social media followers eagerly share our pages and information. This wouldn’t be possible if they didn’t trust us.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @kindness.matters
• Facebook: @kindnessmatters13
• Other: [email protected] TikTok @kindnessmatters.always

Image Credits
Jacki James