Building Caring Communities with Sesame

Sesame Workshop and the PSEG Foundation are launching Little Neighbors: Building a Better World Together, new bilingual resources featuring beloved Sesame Street friends to support young children and their families in building happy, healthy futures for their neighborhoods and communities.

Focusing on six core community values — safety, the environment, compassion, volunteerism, continuous self-improvement, and being a good neighbor — Little Neighbors aims to nurture children’s early understandings of community and encourage them to act with concern, respect, and kindness for others. The new bilingual resources, available to parents and providers at www.sesamestreetincommunities.org, include: 

·       7 new videos featuring familiar friends like Elmo, Grover, and Rosita. In one video, Good Neighbors Volunteer, Cookie Monster volunteers for the first time at a bake sale; in another, Good Neighbors Care for the Earth, Oscar the Grouch learns how taking good care of the environment starts by noticing and appreciating nature, with a little help from Slimey the Worm.

·       The Little Neighbors Club, a new digital storybook featuring Sesame Street friends who work together to make their community better.

·       New activity pages on how to help others, volunteer, and take care of the earth.

·       A complete activity book to inspire children to build a better world.

·       A volunteer tip sheet, webinar, and articles for grownups. 

In addition, a Facebook Live event featuring Elmo, Hooper’s Store proprietor Alan, and other Sesame Street friends is available for children and their families to watch together and get to know the new materials.

“We want to help children see themselves as active participants in their communities and, with the support of caring grownups, feel inspired to build a better world, starting right in their own neighborhoods,” says Dr. Jeanette Betancourt, Senior Vice President of US Social Impact, Sesame Workshop. “It is important for children to understand, empathize with, and appreciate others, and the new resources launching today are designed to help children think and act with concern and kindness. Sesame Workshop is proud to partner with the PSEG Foundation to help families build strong and caring communities.”