Sesame Workshop collaborates with Department of Pediatrics at Weill Cornell to develop emergency readiness kit for kids and families
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD LET'S GET READY! KIT
Within the past five years, families across the United States have experienced a wide range of disasters and emergencies including hurricanes, storms, floods, wildfires, and tornados. The aftermath of events like 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina have particularly emphasized the need for emergency readiness planning to assure that children are protected physically and psychologically in the event of a disaster. With that in mind, Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit organization behind Sesame Street, has launched Let's Get Ready! Planning Together for Emergencies as part of the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) National Preparedness Month (September). This bi-lingual (Spanish-English) initiative will help families with young children between the ages of two and five prepare for an emergency with basic information and ways in which they can best respond to an emergency and helps them develop a sense of resilience and self-confidence.
The program was created in collaboration with DHS’s Ready Kids and the Ad Council's ongoing preparedness effort, which helps parents and teachers educate children about emergencies and how they can help their families prepare. Let's Get Ready! was funded by American Greetings, with additional support from The Blanche and Irving Laurie Foundation and original funding provided by the Bear Stearns Charitable Foundation. The Let's Get Ready!kits are available for download online at www.sesamestreet.org/ready and www.ready.gov/sesame. The video component will soon be available, free of charge, on iTunes under the Learning Along with Sesame TV series.
Let's Get Ready! will provide resources for preparedness and offer strategies to confront emergencies, helping families understand that having a family plan and an emergency kit is useful for responding to any type of disaster. Families will learn that a plan enables them to operate as a unit with the whole families' well-being in mind, even if they're not in the same place. Additionally, Let's Get Ready! will show that creating an emergency plan with your child(ren) and in your community gives everybody a sense of connection, protection, and comfort.
"For nearly 40 years, Sesame Workshop and our beloved Sesame Street Muppets have always addressed educational and community needs through the creative use of media," said Gary E. Knell, President and CEO, Sesame Workshop. "As we address these needs we have never shied away from delving into deep and complex issues and finding accessible and age appropriate ways to talk about these issues with children and families."
"Family preparedness is the cornerstone of personal and community readiness, and we could not be more pleased to team up with Sesame Workshop," said Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. "Parents, especially with young children, can use these tools to quickly and easily prepare their family for the unexpected, and equip their children with the information they need in an emergency situation."
"Sesame Workshop has had a long and special relationship with children and, therefore, they are a credible source for our preparedness messages," said Peggy Conlon, President & CEO of the Ad Council. "This program is a wonderful extension of our efforts with the Department of Homeland Security to encourage families to take simple steps to prepare."
Let's Get Ready! Planning Together for Emergencies will help adults explain to young children various ways they can be physically and emotionally prepared for an emergency. Included will be a print guide for parents and caregivers, a children's activity book, and a DVD starring the Sesame Street Muppets in an engaging story about emergency preparedness.
The materials will offer tips on how families can prepare their children for an emergency in age-appropriate ways such as:
- Everyone, even young children, can play a role in planning for the unexpected.
- Creating an emergency plan that the entire family practices and shares with the significant people in their lives is important.
- Helping children learn personal information such as a phone number, their full names, and the names of special people in their home, is helpful in case of any emergency.
As with all Sesame Workshop outreach projects, the themes and content of the initiative is based on research as well as advice and review from experts in the field of emergency and trauma preparedness, pediatrics, psychiatry, child development and early care and education. The advisors have helped determine the needs and challenges of young children and guide the development of age-appropriate and effective content for the program. In addition, a collaboration has been forged with the Department of Pediatrics of Weill Cornell Medical College, whose expertise in the area of child development and emotional trauma helped ensure that the materials are useful, appealing, and highly effective.
Advisory Board participants include:
- Steve Cozza, Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Uniformed Services University School of Medicine; Associate Director, Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress
- Cathy Grace, Ed.D., Professor and Director, National Center for Rural Early Childhood Learning Initiatives, Early Childhood Institute, Mississippi State University
- Inga Jelescheff, Senior Director, Operations and Program Management, Preparedness and Health and Safety Services, American Red Cross National Headquarters
- Evelyn Lipper, M.D., Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics, Weill Cornell Medical College
- Michael McGrady, Interim Executive Director, Head Start
- Sheryl L. Pipe, Ph.D., Senior Director, Humane Education, American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA)
- Beverley Schmalzried, Ph.D., Director of Strategic Initiatives, National Association of Child Care Resource & Referral Agencies & Professor, Milligan College, TN
- JR Thomas, Associate Vice President, Domestic Emergencies Unit, Save the Children
- Mary Jo Ward, Ph.D., Associate Research Professor of Psychology in Pediatrics and Psychiatry, Weill Cornell Medical College
ABOUT DR. EVELYN G. LIPPER
Dr. Evelyn Gruss Lipper, Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics, Weill Cornell Medical College, specializes in the field of developmental and behavioral pediatrics. She is an Associate Professor of Clinical Pediatrics and has served as Director of the Division of Developmental Pediatrics at Weill Medical College of Cornell University and the New York Presbyterian Hospital.
ABOUT DR. MARY J. WARD
Mary J. Ward, Associate Research Professor of Psychology in Pediatrics and Psychiatry, Weill Cornell Medical College, received a bachelor’s degree in psychology summa cum laude from Bucknell in 1978 and earned a Ph.D. in developmental psychology from the Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota in 1983. She came to Cornell University Medical College (now Weill Cornell Medical College) in 1983 as a postdoctoral associate in the Department of Pediatrics. She was promoted to assistant professor of psychology in pediatrics in 1985 and to associate research professor of psychology in pediatrics and psychiatry in 1991 and 1993.
Dr. Ward’s primary activity at Weill-Cornell has been conducting research on issues relevant to the lives of young children, using methods from basic developmental science. The central theme of Dr. Ward’s research has been the study of special populations of infants and young children. In the past 25 years, she has studied children with malnutrition, adolescent mothers and their children, children adopted from overseas, and the grandchildren of adults with HIV. She has remained at the forefront of research on attachment, including assessment of attachment in infants, preschool children, adolescents, and adults. Her work has been supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health and private foundations and her work is published in peer-reviewed journals.
ABOUT SESAME WORKSHOP
Sesame Workshop is the nonprofit educational organization that changed television forever with the legendary Sesame Street. As the single largest informal educator of young children, local Sesame Street programs produced in countries as diverse as South Africa, Bangladesh and India are making a difference in over 120 nations. Using proprietary research to create engaging and enriching content, Sesame Workshop produces programs such as Dragon Tales and Pinky Dinky Doo. In addition, multimedia needs-driven initiatives provide families tools for addressing such issues as children’s health, military deployment and emergency preparedness. As a nonprofit, product proceeds and philanthropic donations support Sesame Workshop’s educational research and creative content for children around the world.
RELATED LINKS
NYP/Weill Cornell Medical College
Komansky Center for Children's Health at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital
Child Development at Weill Cornell
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