We are a Sesame Street household. I’ve been sold on the entire franchise since I was two-years-old, and my love grew even deeper when my military kid son was born and I discovered that the Sesame Street Workshop folks produce a series especially for military families, as well as traveling the country with a free Sesame Street USO show. (And also, hilarious song parodies like this one don’t hurt).
The first two of these military focused productions were aimed at helping military children deal with grief and deployment, respectively. Now they are in the process of producing a project on resilience, and one of the sections deals with divorce.
And they need your help.
You can check out all the details below, but please note that their requirements are very, very specific — not just for the kind of person they are looking for, but also for where they are located. Also, please note that they are specifically looking for an enlisted family.
Here’s the info our Sesame Street friend Chrissy App forwarded us:
For the Divorce DVD, we need to film a divorced military family who fits these qualifications:
- Children live with the mom (who is not military/enlisted) anywhere in continental US
- Dad is enlisted in the military, either Active Duty or National Guard/Reserve
- Dad lives away from mom and kids somewhere else in the US, and he’s NOT currently deployed
- The divorce occurred more than 6 months and less than 3 years ago
- The child(ren) telling the story should be between the ages of 10 and 11, and should have at least one sibling age 6 or younger (note: children will need to feel comfortable talking/being in front of camera).
The goals of the live action films are:
- Obtain a child’s perspective about a divorce experience (so we need a child/children who are willing to speak)
- Provide strategies for children and their families to ease the impact of the divorce.
- Show that every family’s situation may be different, and that “you’re not alone.”
- Demonstrate that coping with change can get easier over time.We need to find several potential families to screen from which we can ultimately choose ONE family that will be documented in our resources.
Any interested families can contact me by emailing militaryfamilies@sesame.org
You can get all the details for the resiliency project — Little Children, Big Challenges here. Bonus: it is centered around one of my more recent favorite Sesame Street songs, “What We Are.” (I say “more recent” because, really, Lady Bug Picnic is going to be my number one favorite forever).
About Amy Bushatz
Comments
Yay Sesame Street! Another awesome production from Children's Television Workshop.
While I understand the desire to reach out to children from broken military homes, I feel it's an even greater impact to project intact families.
It's healthy for children to see strong family units even if they themselves come from a broken background. Speaking from experience, it was the examples of the strong bonds of married couples with their children that positively influenced me. I yearned for that stability and self-confidence that my friends whom came from these homes had and exhibited.
It's okay to embrace the ideal situation, rather than shine a spotlight on brokenness already noted on every other show on television. My child absolutely adores your shows Sesame Street & Elmo. I want to thank you for continuing the classic hit. After all these years, I stilll love Big Bird and Cookie Monster
Please don't forget to focus beams on the gift of families that stay together. More shows with a mother and father with their kids enjoying life are welcome :)
wow. I can't even remember the last time I have seen the word "broken" to describe a family with divorced parents. Your choice of words insulting and ignorant.
When my family fell apart – there was not another word to describe the feeling. Just broken.
It's ignorant to devalue the vulnerable feelings of a child.
My 12-year old cousin is an only child and "broken" is the only word to describe his once happy, care-free attitude. He's another casualty of broken homes putting on a brave face for his parents. When asked how's he's doing, he stoically responds, he's "OK."
I'm advocating for more shows on all networks to celebrate families that stay together & and are able to work out life's issues. It is imperative to show healthy examples of intact families and their successes and struggles. Children are impressionable and might otherwise not have the privilege of experiencing the gift of both mother and father directly influencing their lives.
I think it is great that Sesame Street is trying to help children in all situations. I love that they are willing to go outside the box and show the difficult situations as well as the not so difficult. Military families have a very rough lifestyle and go through so many difficult situations from deployments, dual active duty parents, divorces, etc. We should be looking at the fact that someone is trying to bring these situations down to the level a child can relate to and not focus on the "negative" of the situation. The reality of it, divorce is very high in military families so why not show how a family has dealt with it. There is nothing saying that Sesame street isn't going to portray the "perfect" family, or what about the single parent families, the dual active duty families, the non-traditional families.