
How it started...
Kindest Kid in America was born from a discussion between friends about how we could help on of the most urgent crises facing our kids today...school shootings.
There isn't just one reason someone chooses to shoot up a school, but one underlying factor is consistent among the almost 1000 documented school shootings in U.S. History over the last 25 years...every shooter felt excluded or wronged in their community. This is a fact. Therefore, one thing common citizens like us can do to help is to do anything we can think of to create kinder, more inclusive, more compassionate school cultures.
As a group of professional motivational speakers who specifically speak in elementary through high schools across the nation, we put our heads together to come up with an exciting, fun, positive program that could help kids see kindness as cool, fun, and awesome. The goal is to help kids internalize that kindness is a character attribute they want to identify with. Sometimes meanness is seen as "cool," therefore, we need to make kindness even cooler!
Jessie Hansen is leading the charge. She had a childhood dream of becoming a children's book author and loves powerful stories of human goodness. She is also passionate about human behavior and has degrees in psychology and social work. This program is her doctorate degree capstone project. She is determined to conduct quantitative and qualitative research around the power of kindness as she and her speaking friends take Kindest Kid in America to every single school in this country.
Her thesis: Kindness can prevent school shootings and kindness can be just as contagious as hate if it's presented in the right way.