The Institute for Childhood Preparedness has spent the last year working alongside Sesame Workshop as they built out a brand-new library of resources to help young children and families cope with hurricanes, wildfires, floods, blizzards, tornadoes, blackouts, and other extreme weather events. This week, that work reaches families everywhere with the premiere of Storm on Sesame Street on Netflix and PBS KIDS on August 3rd (and on YouTube in September), along with a full suite of free family guides, printables, and videos now live at sesame.org/emergencies. You can watch the trailer for the new special here, and full details on the initiative are available in Sesame Workshop’s press release.
In the new special, Elmo and his friends prepare for a big storm together, and Elmo learns that it is okay to be scared — and that fear is actually part of what it means to be brave. After the storm passes, the neighborhood comes together to help rebuild, with a little help from celebrity guests Post Malone and Michelle Buteau. It is a warm, honest, age-appropriate way to help very young children, ages one to six, understand something that can otherwise feel overwhelming.
We were honored to be part of building this initiative from the ground up. Over the past year, our team reviewed and provided technical feedback on nearly every piece of content in the collection, including the hurricane, flood, wildfire, blizzard, tornado, and blackout guides, the companion scripts for the new special, and the social media and printable materials that families will use at home and in classrooms. We also weighed in on the framework Sesame Workshop used to shape its company-wide approach to extreme weather content, and we were glad to be included as part of the small group of pediatric emergency experts helping guide that work.
One of the highlights of the past year was getting to visit the set while the special was being filmed and seeing firsthand how much care goes into every detail of these productions.
Andy Roszak and Leah Smith on set while the special was being filmed.
Of course we stopped by Oscar the Grouch’s trash can.
It has been a genuine pleasure working with the team at Sesame Workshop. Their commitment to getting the details right, and to making sure very young children have resources that meet them where they are, shows in every guide, poster, and script that came out of this project.
Free Family Guides to Download and Share
Below are direct links to several of the family guides we helped develop and review, all free to download and share:
- Here for Each Other: Hurricanes
- Here for Each Other Family Guide: Floods
- Here for Each Other: Wildfires
- Here for Each Other: Blizzards
- Here for Each Other: House Fires
- Let’s Get Ready: Power Safety
- Let’s Get Ready: Emergency Family Guide
The full library of emergency resources, including videos, storybooks, and Spanish-language materials, can be found at sesameworkshop.org/topics/emergencies.
Here Is What You Can Do
These resources are unique in that they are built specifically for very young children, ages one to six — a group that is often overlooked in emergency preparedness materials. Share them with your emergency management and childcare networks. Print the safety sheets for children to color at home or at a community event. Incorporate the videos and guides into your own programs, trainings, or social media. And since screen time is always a consideration, we would encourage caregivers to watch the videos alongside their child, so there is a chance to talk through the material together afterward.
We are proud of the role we played in helping bring this initiative to life, and even prouder to see it reach the families who need it most. Congratulations to the entire team at Sesame Workshop on a wonderful launch.
Andy Roszak, JD, MPA, EMT-P Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Institute for Childhood Preparedness