Sesame responds to economic challenges with a new prime time special
"Families Stand Together: Feeling Secure In Tough Times" is the new hour-long special premiering September 9 at 8 pm eastern on PBS
Courtesy of Sesame Workshop
September 1, 2009
In today’s economic climate, approximately two out of three middle-class families are at risk of losing their economic security. Increases in job loss and income cuts have made families struggle with basic costs like housing, medical care, transportation, food, clothing, and childcare. Too often parents are being forced to make difficult decisions that affect their children’s well-being.
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Families Stand Together: Feeling Secure in Tough Times is an hour-long television special hosted by Al Roker, Deborah Roberts and Elmo, with financial expert, Jean Chatsky, and clinical psychologist, Joshua Coleman, to help families with children, ages two to eight, experiencing difficult economic challenges.
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In response to these hard economic times, Sesame Street has joined forces with David Letterman’s production company — Worldwide Pants Incorporated and Lookalike Productions — to produce a new PBS primetime special, Families Stand Together: Feeling Secure In Tough Times. The hour-long special, made possible by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, is hosted by Al Roker, Deborah Roberts and Elmo, and features financial expert Jean Chatzky. The special premieres on September 9 at 8pm ET/PT on PBS (please check your local listings).
Families Stand Together, which also features Sesame Street’s Grover, Chris, Elmo’s family, and parenting and relationship expert Dr. Joshua Coleman, provides simple strategies and helpful tips that can easily be integrated into families’ everyday routines. The television special is only one part of a larger initiative aimed at helping families with children, ages two to eight, who are experiencing difficult economic circumstances by offering strategies and tips that can lead to positive outcomes for their children’s physical and emotional well-being during the current tough economic climate.
 “The focus of the initiative is to help families with children cope during these challenging economic times,” says Dr. Jeanette Betancourt, Vice President for Outreach and Educational Practices at Sesame Workshop, “particularly if they’ve experienced a job loss or foreclosure of their home, or a dramatic decrease in their income. It provides strategies for how to talk about these situations, and how to really work together as a family.”
THE BALLIS: A STRONGER FAMILY
The Balli Family of Canyon Lake, Calif., is featured in the television special. Erin and Joe Balli — parents of two boys, Joseph, 10, and Matthew, 9 — were forced to sell everything from their previous lives and move into a two-bedroom motor home after Joe lost his well-paying job at an RV dealership.
Joe Balli says the crisis has brought the family closer together.
“We learned to simplify,” he says. “It’s helped us as a family because it’s shown our boys that money doesn’t buy love. You don’t have to go to Disneyland to make a family day. A family day can be going to the park or to the lake fishing. It hasn’t been easy, but I believe it has helped us grow stronger as a family.”
One of the most important lessons the special teaches is that parents shouldn’t keep their feelings to themselves but should share them with their children, as well as with other adults.
“Don’t be afraid to talk about it,” Erin Balli says. “You’re not alone, and it’s nothing to keep to yourself. You’ll have those moments when you still have hopeless feelings. But this too shall pass.”
“Include your children,” Betancourt explains. “Don’t try to protect them by avoiding the conversation. Include them, and let them know about the changes that are happening.”
“The important thing to say to your kids is that you’re going to be alright,” adds Jean Chatzky, the Families Stand Together financial expert, “and that you’re going to get through this together. It’s important to give your kids enough information so that they understand what’s going on in general terms, without getting specific with them. You want to help your children understand that a lot of families are going through job loss or reduction in income and that they are not alone, so there is no shame or embarrassment. They should feel free to talk about it.”
LEARNING TO SAY “NO”
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“[The special addresses] everything from how to have difficult conversations to how to strategize and budget when we’re coming out of a time when saying ‘no’ to our children is not something we’ve had to do,” Betancourt says.
Betancourt also says that part of helping children understand the difficult economic times includes helping them make a distinction between “wants” and “needs.”
“There are things that we all may want,” she explains. “Then there are things that we absolutely need, such as a place to live, clothes, and food. Sometimes children may want extra toys or video games. Even though those are important, the needs are even more important. And sometimes, as families, especially during these economic times, we need to balance that.”
Beyond the primetime special, Sesame Workshop will extend the initiative by providing additional resources online, in print and in local communities to help guide families during these tough times. Sesame Workshop will work with PBS stations in 32 key markets to promote community screenings and to deliver 200,000 bilingual educational outreach kits nationwide beginning October 15, 2009. The materials will consist of:
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A bilingual (English/Spanish) outreach kit with a DVD featuring documentary moments of families as well as content to help children and families talk about the feelings and stresses experienced during economic insecurity.
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A printed children’s story which offers support and strategies for families during economic transitions.
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A guide for parents/caregivers which provides strategies on how to meet challenges as a family, ideas about how to explain difficult situations to young children, and tips on planning for the short- and long-term.
Resources and materials will be available online at www.sesameworkshop.org/toughtimes from September 9, 2009 so that families everywhere can view the videos and download the information.
“PAYING IT FORWARD”
“I can’t save the world. I’m just Joe,” Joe Balli says. “But this is the one opportunity in my life to leave my footprint and to say, ‘I’m paying it forward.’ If we can help one family from doing anything drastic, if we can keep one family together, I’ve paid it forward. I’ve left my footprint.
“We lost a house. I lost a box of wood. I didn’t lose a home. My home is where the four of us are together. It could be a mobile home — what we’re living in now. It could be the backseat of a car. It could be in the spare bedroom of a friend’s house. That’s where our home is. That’s something no one can take away — no bank, no government. That’s yours. Those memories come with you. You’ve lost the house. You don’t lose your home.”
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