Helping Our Heroes at Home

Sesame Workshop continues to support the children of deployed military personnel.

With members of the military experiencing longer and more frequent deployments, their families – especially those with young children – are shouldering much of the burden in many ways, from the length of time away a parent is deployed, to the frequent effects of multiple homecomings, and even more challenging, when a parent returns changed due to a combat-related injury . In fact, it is often said that when a parent serves, the entire family serves.

Building on the success of Talk, Listen, Connect’s first stage, Sesame Workshop is continuing its efforts to provide resources and emotional support as military families cope with the various stages of deployment: pre-deployment, deployment, and homecoming and the many challenges and questions these stages present for young children. Sesame Workshop’s commitment to the needs of military families and their children is so strong that this second phase began with the Workshop’s own investment before the full amount of external financial support was secured. 

Dr. Jeanette Betancourt, Sesame Workshop’s vice president of outreach and education practices, described the Workshop’s decision to engage in such an ambitious project on its own as rare but justified.

“It is very unique … I think it was because of the incredible impact the first phase made, and also the incredible need that the second phase was demonstrating,” says Betancourt.

The decision made sense once research findings revealed that the project’s first phase had a strong impact on military families struggling to cope with the challenges of deployment. The findings indicated that after using the resources, parents were significantly more likely to prepare children for a parent’s deployment. They were also more likely to explore children’s feelings and keep  the parent-child connection strong despite a parent being so far away. 

“Parents also reported that it reduced their sense of anxiety and their sense of depression. And that, to us, was more than we could ever expect in any outreach project,” says Betancourt.

Helping families through the stages of deployment

The project’s second phase, Talk, Listen, Connect: Deployments, Homecomings, Changes, launched in April 2008. It provides support and significant resources for military families with children aged two to five who are experiencing the effects of deployment, multiple deployments, or a parent’s return home with a combat-related injury. 

Talk, Listen, Connect: Deployments, Homecomings, Changes seeks to:

• Reduce the anxiety children face when handling parents returning home after multiple deployments
• Help children gain an age-appropriate understanding of a parent’s injury by including the entire family in the rehabilitation process
• Reassure children that they are loved and secure and that they and their families can develop new ways of giving each other hope and support
• Provide parents with the tools they need to handle multiple deployments

Military families can use the initiative’s multiple media resources to introduce and discuss these difficult topics in ways that are age-appropriate and relevant. The resources include two DVDs starring the Sesame Street Muppets, print materials for children, parents, caregivers, and facilitators, and postcards that help children and families stay connected. One of the DVDs tells the story of Elmo’s dad returning home from working far away and shows the entire family readjusting. The other DVD has Rosita’s dad returning home in a wheelchair due to an injury, and shows Rosita learning to cope with the feelings this sudden change of events brings forth. 

Creating a framework for all military families

Rocío Galarza, Sesame Workshop’s director of outreach and content design, recalls the emotion on the set when both the Elmo and Rosita stories were filmed.

 “We had some of our advisors there [for the filming], and they were just so happy that something like this was actually being done for the military families. They were just so excited and really appreciative, looking at the Sesame Street Muppets actually taking on these messages that were so important to the military families.”

And the response to the final product has been overwhelmingly positive, says Lynn Chwatsky, Senior Project Director for Sesame's Military Family Initiative.

"The feedback all along the way has been overwhelming positive. From Senior level military officials, to hospital personnel, to our project advisors, to members of Congress, and to most importantly, the young families to whom these materials are targeted - these materials are making a powerful impact."

Betancourt knows that the work being done now for Talk, Listen, Connect may be used by military families for many years.

“We’re ensuring that these resources get into as many hands as possible …This is filling a deep need with young children, but in the end what we’re discovering is it’s filling a need for all military families, regardless of the age of their children. It’s really helping younger and older children together,” she says.

“We are interested in really making this sustainable so that, even beyond the current situations, this is something that will exist for all military families for a long time.”

Funding Partners

American Greetings
Corporation for Public Broadcasting
Joseph Drown Foundation
Military Child Education Coalition
Military OneSource
New York State Office of Mental Health
The Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense (Health Affairs)
USO World Headquarters
Wal-Mart Foundation