On July 27th, 2019, Jazz Thornton became the inaugural winner of the Impact Award for Wellbeing. Launched by the team at Inspiring Stories, The Impact Awards celebrates young New Zealanders making a difference with $20,000 awarded across four categories – climate, enterprise, inclusion and wellbeing.
The Impact Award for Wellbeing recognises young New Zealanders demonstrating leadership and taking action to improve the mental and physical health of kiwis across Aotearoa. Jazz Thornton uses her own experiences with mental health to educate youth through powerful storytelling. Founder of Voices of Hope; Jazz writes books, stars in films, and goes school to school, sharing her story and giving young people the resources they need to combat mental health challenges in their communities.
The inaugural Impact Awards attracted 200 applicants from 12 regions across New Zealand. The Awards Ceremony took place on the Saturday night during the weekend of Festival for the Future, and attracted 400 guests, including CEO’s and senior leaders from business and government, as well as young people and finalists from across the nation. We caught up with Jazz to hear more about her experience…
Pictured from left: Guy Ryan, CEO & Founder of Inspiring Stories and The Impact Awards; Jacinta Gulasekharam – winner of the Evolve Leadership Summit scholarship; Shaquille Shortland, CEO of Tuapapa Māori Language Academy & Consultancy – winner of the Inclusion Award; Sophie Handford, National Coordinator School Strikes 4 Climate – winner of the Climate Award; Jazz Thornton, CEO of Voices of Hope – winner of the Wellbeing Award; and Shay Wright – Co-founder of Te Whare Hukahuka – winner of the Impact Award for Enterprise
Q: Let’s rewind to the Awards Ceremony – what was it like?
A: It was incredible. The room was filled with so inspiring people who are literally just out here changing the world in so many different ways. It was also really cool to have the older generation in the room. To have CEOs and senior leaders from business and government saying ‘this is something that we back’ was amazing.
I sat next to someone who had written like 8 books, and it was just as I was starting to write my first. I remember talking to him and he hadn’t told me at this point that he’d done that, so I was talking about Voices of Hope and the book I’d just started writing with penguin, and so we chatted for a while then at the end of the convo he just dropped that he’d written like 8 books – I was just like wow, that’s amazing!
Q: What difference has winning the award has made for you?
A: Immediately it enabled us to go and share our story with thousands – I think we must have talked to a couple hundred High Schools, so we were able to expand the reach of campaigns we were doing which was incredible. But also having a title like that has really helped us speak with legitimacy and show evidence of our achievement – both nationally and internationally. It also just gave us the confidence to know we’re on the right track, and this is something we can keep doing for the rest of our lives if we want to.
Pictured from left: Guy Ryan, CEO & Founder of Inspiring Stories and The Impact Awards; Jazz Thornton, CEO of Voices of Hope – winner of the Wellbeing Award; and Cath Edmondson from the Health Promotion Agency who sponsored The Impact Award for Wellbeing.
Q: What did you use the prize $ for, and what difference has that made in your community?
A: We used the money to go into more than 100 high schools, giving presentations and talks for free. We also created more campaigns and video content such as ‘it’s not weak to speak’, which ended up reaching more than a million people, gaining lot of media attention and chatter across social media. The impact of that is honestly immeasurable because we often see kids coming up to us immediately after our talks, telling us their story, but there will always be those who don’t and those who tell their friends what they saw so it ripples out - and that’s just something we can’t measure.
Jazz sharing her journey with New Zealand on Newshub
Q: What would you say to someone who’s thinking about applying for The Impact Awards next year?
A: ‘JUST DO IT!’ – not to endorse Nike or anything, but just do it. When I was nominated, I nearly didn’t fill in the form I was sent. In classic kiwi terms we don’t want to put ourselves up or talk about our achievements. It can be kinda awkward to do so, but I really like that you Inspiring Stories and The Impact Awards is doing this. You’re stepping up and celebrating the incredible things that young people are achieving for other people. So if you’re thinking about applying just do it – you never know the difference it could make as a result.
Q: What role do you think Inspiring Stories plays in making a difference for young New Zealanders?
A: I think Inspiring Stories and what they do is enabling young people to chase their dreams. It’s enabling people from all backgrounds to know they can make a difference. I think that’s incredible and I think there’s an entire generation in NZ that are coming through that need to know their stories are valid and their stories can be heard. But also that they can use these stories and experiences to create change and be leaders, and recreate the system we’ve been brought up into that we don’t believe is right. We have the ability to change that and I think that’s what Inspiring stories does - I think it empowers people to be that change.