Sesame Workshop Helps Families Cope with Military Deployment
Talk, Listen, Connect guides and supports military families through the stages of deployment
As of March 2008, more American children under the age of five have a parent away on military duty than at any other time since World War II. These children – more than half a million of them – have a parent in active duty, the National Guard, or the Army Reserve. How do families cope with this major change in their lives? What happens if a parent returns from war with an injury? Seeing that American families needed the answers to these tough questions, Sesame Workshop developed a multi-phase project addressing the challenges that these families face during deployment.
The first part of the Talk, Listen, Connect initiative includes video and print components and helps prepare families for pre-deployment, deployment, and homecoming. The kit contains strategies and activities to help young children through these times and offers some ideas to help keep families connected.
The television special, When Parents Are Deployed, captures the extraordinary courage and vulnerability of parents and children who are handling deployment. Hosted by actor Cuba Gooding, Jr., the half-hour special aired on December 27th, 2006 and was funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
The special incorporates scenes from the Talk, Listen, Connect feature video starring Elmo with original documentary footage of deployed parents and their families at home. Family members voice their thoughts and feelings about their everyday challenges and victories. The special focuses on the ways different families cope, while showing that all share a sense of pride in their ability to adapt during difficult circumstances.
Producers for When Parents Are Deployed worked directly with families who had a deployed member, highlighting their struggle to care for the family members left behind and to maintain a consistent daily routine while worrying about their endangered loved ones.
Writer and director Joseph Pipher says that at one point during filming, the crew was overcome with emotion while listening to a grandmother describe her efforts to keep her grandchildren upbeat while their mother was deployed. Pipher says the entire crew was crying – and that was when he knew that Sesame Workshop was "on to something pretty serious and pretty important."
The second phase of the project, Talk, Listen, Connect: Deployments, Homecomings, Changes, launched in April 2008. It includes a DVD featuring original stories starring Elmo and Rosita, and updated print materials providing strategies for handling the phases of deployment. These materials focus on helping families cope with multiple deployments and a parent returning home injured.
Our 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
