Center City, Minn. (Oct. 10, 2019) – When Sesame Workshop decided to tackle the nation's biggest public health issue by introducing new resources for children dealing with parental addiction, the nonprofit behind Sesame Street turned to a small handful of people with deep expertise in helping such children.
One was Jerry Moe, national director of the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation's Children's Program, who in January visited the set of Sesame Street. There, he met neighborhood legends like Grover and Elmo, as well as Karli, a 6 year old Sesame Street Muppet who would soon be introduced as the face of the Sesame Street in Communities foster care initiative. Karli's storyline expanded this week to include the reason she was placed in foster care: her mother had to go away for addiction treatment but is now in recovery.
"Children are often the first hurt and the last helped when a parent has addiction, so kids like Karli are typically confused and unsure of themselves," Moe said. "They don't know what's going on or have a language for talking about it. They feel alone and might even blame themselves for things happening in the family. Amid all of that trauma, they often stop playing and being a kid.
"Getting to work with the Sesame Workshop team to help inform the new resources and Karli's story was a tremendous honor," Moe continued. "Like Hazelden Betty Ford, Sesame Workshop has passionate, world-class experts on its staff, so collaborating on even the subtlest aspects of working with children was very fulfilling professionally. When my own son Josh was young, we used to watch Sesame Street every morning. Stepping onto that set, it felt like a sacred place. It also was fun to hang out with the Muppets: we got to play and act silly, too."
Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind Sesame Street, announced on Oct. 9 its initiative to support children and families affected by parental addiction.
In addition to expanding Karli's story arc, the initiative includes new videos and other content with age-appropriate messages for kids, as well as tools and resources for caring adults—all available for free in English and Spanish—at SesameStreetinCommunities.org. Among the resources are articles and tools developed by Moe and Cynthia Galaviz, who supervises the Hazelden Betty Ford Children's Program in Rancho Mirage, Calif., where former First Lady Betty Ford personally helped launch the program in 1983. Galaviz—who, like Moe, grew up in a family affected by addiction—also is featured in a Provider Portrait video that looks at Hazelden Betty Ford's influential approach to helping children and families.
"My mission in life is to help families and children find their voice and to know that their stories matter," Galaviz says in the video.
Hazelden Betty Ford, the nation's largest nonprofit addiction treatment provider, has Children's Program sites in California, Colorado and Minnesota. The Children's Program, which also works with school districts to deliver counseling right on school campuses, serves kids ages 7-12. Thanks to the generosity of donors, it never has to turn a child away due to an inability to pay. That is important because insurance does not cover such child services, despite the fact that 5.7 million children under age 11 live in households with a parent who has a substance abuse disorder and a third of those enter foster care as a result. Millions more have a parent hurt by addiction but don't live with that parent due to separation, divorce, incarceration or death.
"Seeing this initiative take shape has been especially gratifying for people like me and Sis Wenger, the CEO of the National Association for Children of Addiction, who has been a longtime friend, partner and champion of this cause," Moe said. "We were on the Sesame Street set together after more than three decades of collaborating on services for young children, and that was a special day for both of us. Let's hope this helps spark additional interest in expanding these much-needed resources nationwide."
Since 2015, Sesame Street in Communities has provided easy-to-use tools for community providers and caregivers on the toughest issues children face, particularly on topics where there are few resources for young children.
"Sesame Street has always been bold in many ways, and it's great to see Sesame Workshop tackling issues that are difficult for children and families to talk about," Moe said. "We appreciate that this initiative goes beyond the problem to focus on the solution of recovery—both for the parent and their children. Kids are resilient, but they need to know they're not alone and that they will be taken care of. They need to understand addiction is a sickness and that people can get better when they get help. Most importantly, they need to know it's not their fault. From all of that springs hope and the ability to recover and be a kid again."
Sesame Street celebrates its 50th anniversary this November, just as the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation celebrates its 70th.
"The difference that Sesame Street continues to make in the lives of children and families is an extraordinary thing for me, and for Hazelden Betty Ford, to be part of," Moe said.