For the National Happiness Awards team, the end of awards season can be a sombre time. The show packs up, the lights dim, the banners come down and StephW, our Chief Happiness Coordinator, finally realises there are no more half-empty bottles of plonk left on the tables to swipe.
Here at the National Happiness Awards, we pride ourselves on setting the standard for happiness best-practice in the UK. Which is why all our winners are scrutinised to make sure they truly deserve the accolades they win. Not only do winners need to be happy, they also need to demonstrate that the measures they are taking to spread happiness are sustainable and innovative. Our judges are eagle-eyed happiness experts who know what makes a winner. Here’s Nina Jackson to explain what she’ll be looking for in this year's National Happiness Awards.
Mutual support is one of core elements of happiness and The National Happiness Awards are lucky enough to have support from some wonderful friends. Without our sponsors, the awards would not be the all-singing, all-dancing affair they are. Instead, we’d probably be in a draughty community hall somewhere, clutching a platter of stale sandwiches and trying to make ourselves heard above the sound of the Line Dancing class next door.
If you are a Bowmanette, or a McPartlin Dolly (see what we’ve done there), this is the awards news for you. Enjoy the latest in our series of judge’s biographies, and learn all about our next two National Happiness Awards judges.
Whoever said that it's rude to judge obviously doesn’t know our next two lovely judges. They’re the most polite people you could ever wish to meet.
Hollie-Grace Gough from Maidstone, Kent, knows the value of a smile. The brave 10-year-old was born with a cleft lip and palate and needed major surgery as a baby to correct the condition. The anxiety she suffered as a small child meant that for the first four years of her life she was selectively mute. She only communicated with a few people and used sign language, even though she wore wearing hearing aids. At school Hollie-Grace never took part in assemblies, church services, Christmas carols or any form of activity and would sit and cry with a teacher instead.
“Fifteen years ago, after a decade working as a stand-up comedian, I had an idea for a business venture and went to see my manager for a loan. I explained my proposal. I wanted to establish a learning and development company, working in the public and private sector, which used the psychology of happiness and humour to improve lives and boost productivity and wellbeing. The bank manager listened, then laughed. It was not the reaction I was hoping for.
