Don't Let The Bad Economy Get You Down!
Sep 9, 2009 1:49 pm US/Eastern
Elmo Helps Kids Understand Tough Economy
Hour Long Special "Families Stand Together: Feeling Secure in Tough Times"
Airs Wednesday At 8:00 On WPBT-PBS 2 In South Florida
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
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Heidi and Brandon Van Walraven, of Homestead, and their children from left, Danielle, 9, Justin, 5, Emily, 11 months, Megan, 7, and Joshua, 3, pose with Elmo during the taping of a Sesame Street special that airs Sept. 9th at 8 p.m. on PBS. HANDOUT
Sesame Workshop
Explaining the recession and changes to your family economics to your children may not be an easy task but Elmo is here to help. Sesame Street has produced, in association with David Letterman's production company Worldwide Pants Incorporated and Lookalike Productions, a new PBS primetime special,
Families Stand Together: Feeling Secure in Tough Times.
The hour-long special airs Wednesday at 8:00 p.m. on WPBT-PBS 2 in South Florida. WPBT says the program will not be pre-empted by President Obama's speech.
Al Roker, Deborah Roberts and Elmo the Muppet will host the discussion and offer tips to families on how to help children understand how financial hardship affects them.
Families Stand Together provides simple strategies and helpful tips that can easily be integrated into families' everyday routines. The special includes documentary footage of real American families who are living through difficult economic conditions, encouraging positive strategies and modeling behavior for parents and care providers to support the entire family during insecure times.
One of those American families is the Van Walraven family. With seven family members, they moved from Layton, Utah, to Miami-Dade County in March, where they went into economic shock.
"Our rent more than doubled from what it was in Utah. Pretty much everything is more expensive,'' said Sgt. Brandon Van Walraven, an Air Force officer who recently was transferred to the U.S. Southern Command headquarters in Doral.
Van Walraven, his wife Heidi, and their five children joined three other American families for the Sesame Street special.
Beyond the primetime special, Sesame Workshop will extend the initiative by providing additional resources online, in print and into local communities to help guide families during these tough times.
Sesame Workshop will work with PBS stations and community organizations in 32 key markets to promote community screenings and to deliver 200,000 bi-lingual educational outreach kits nationwide beginning October 15, 2009.
The bi-lingual (English/Spanish) outreach kit will consist of:
- A bi-lingual (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 during economic insecurity.
- A printed children's story which offers support and strategies for families during economic transitions.
- A parent/caregiver guide 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 are available online at
www.sesameworkshop.org/toughtimes so that families everywhere can view the videos and download the information.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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