Meet Lily. After losing their apartment and spending time in a shelter, she and her family are staying on Sesame Street with their friend Sofía (played by actress Jasmine Romero) while they look for housing.
“I love watching Lily,” said Kama Einhorn, senior content manager at Sesame Workshop, who speaks fondly of the “sweet, hopeful, optimistic” young Muppet she helped create.
Based in New York City, Sesame Workshop is the nonprofit organization behind Sesame Street. It strives to educate, entertain and enrich kids tuning into the longest-running children’s show in America. With their program now aired in more than 150 countries, Sesame Workshop runs national and international impact campaigns that complement the stories unfolding on screen.
Since its debut in 1969, Sesame Street has reflected the diversity of urban life. Its human cast features folks from varied cultural backgrounds and people living with disabilities, alongside Jim Henson’s beloved Muppets such as Cookie Monster, Elmo, Ernie and Bert. In recent years, Sesame Street – and its many international co-productions – has also welcomed new puppets who are neurodiverse, HIV-positive, and, more recently, experiencing homelessness.
“We knew that homelessness was on the rise,” Einhorn said, citing some heart-breaking statistics. “In the U.S., 2.5 million children go to sleep without a home of their own. Nearly half are under the age of 6.”
Sesame Street has always tackled difficult topics – hands up who remembers Big Bird grieving for Mr. Hooper – and Sesame Workshop goes “wherever vulnerable children and families could most use The Muppets.” Einhorn’s group, U.S. Social Impact, helps kids deal with divorce, incarceration, family violence – anything that could diminish their resilience.
As the rental market gets increasingly competitive, families like Lily’s struggle to find affordable homes.
Yet family homelessness is still largely unseen by those who don’t experience it.
To many, homelessness means rough sleeping, but that’s far too dangerous for families. They may stay at a refuge, in a car or with relatives and friends, but they’re out of the public eye. These kids become, in Einhorn’s words, “invisible children.”
Sesame Workshop noticed a need for materials that explain homelessness to preschoolers.
“We knew we could present this topic to the youngest children, in this special Sesame way,” she said. “Because of The Muppets, we have a light touch with this heavy topic. We can present information from a child’s perspective, offer them comfort.”
They set about creating videos, articles, activity sheets – even a storybook starring Lily, written by Einhorn herself – to discuss homelessness with children. Now available on the Sesame Street in Communities website, there are resources for kids who have and have not experienced homelessness, all informed by rigorous research, which Einhorn calls the lifeblood of Sesame Street.
A national advisory panel helped inform Lily’s story.
“We took everything they told us and we ‘Sesamatized’ it,” she said, referencing that X factor that makes Sesame Street so engaging and enduring.
The next step was focus-testing. Einhorn’s team took preliminary materials to social workers, teachers and health care professionals for feedback.
Lastly, they spoke to parents with a current or past experience of homelessness.
“That was where the really poignant stories and insights worked themselves into the folds of the work,” she said.
The Muppeteer behind – or, rather, below – Lily is Leslie Carrara-Rudolph.
What was it like, finally watching her bring Lily to life?
“It was completely silent on set,” Einhorn recalled. “There were chills. She was tearful. We watched the character we’d been thinking about and talking about come into existence. It’s something you don’t forget.”
Lily first trod the boards at 123 Sesame in the 2011 special "Growing Hope Against Hunger." Part of Sesame Workshop’s response to America’s malnutrition crisis, it showed Lily experiencing food insecurity – one possible precursor to homelessness.
“If Lily’s parents were struggling with poverty,” Einhorn said, “it was likely that the dominoes might start falling. Shelter would likely be down the row. It was a sadly logical narrative.”
While there’s overlap between poverty and homelessness, the latter is also a specific trauma, with distinct risks and repercussions. Einhorn said homelessness is a “layered trauma,” the first tier being the circumstances that put a family at risk. Next is the ordeal of actually losing the home. Then there’s the distress of homelessness itself, and the related dehumanization.
“All trauma creates a public health risk,” Einhorn said. “Homelessness is one of the more complex ones. We talk a lot about ‘help, hope and healing.’ Our Sesame stance is about kindness, empathy and compassion – building smarter, stronger, kinder kids.”
FURTHER READING: The trauma of housing instability
Fascinated by children’s world views, Sesame Workshop wanted to glean the age at which kids start to notice some people don’t have homes. When does that recognition become stigma?
“We learned that there’s a continuum of bias development,” Einhorn said. “Part of that is simply how the human brain works. We sort in ‘same’ and ‘different,’ by color, shape, size. That’s a go-to cognitive strategy that happens pretty early.”
She said a child as young as 3 may ask, “Why is that man lying on the ground?” or “Why are that woman’s clothes dirty?” Honest, age-appropriate questions. Adults should give concrete answers – “He doesn’t have a place to live right now” and “People without homes don’t always have a place to shower” – without stigmatizing or judging.
When discussing homelessness with kids who haven’t experienced it, Einhorn suggests waiting for the child to broach the subject. Pay close attention to what they’re thinking and feeling. You might need to ask them a question to find out what they’re really wondering.
“If they’re walking by a person on the street without permanent shelter, (kids) might read adult body-language and cues to be scared,” Einhorn said. If a child is not being compassionate, the adult should counter that directly.
“We never shy away from tough topics with kids. They’re dealing with the same world we are. They need a caring adult to explain things honestly, to feel like they can ask difficult questions.”
So what can kids and adults do to address family homelessness in their communities?
If your child is keen to help, Einhorn recommends donating pocket money or clothes.
“When we’re cleaning out our homes, make a special effort to consider who’s vulnerable,” she said. “It’s not ‘us’ and ‘them.’ Everyone wants to feel safe, happy, healthy and loved.”
After every initiative launches, Sesame Workshop conducts research to measure its reach and impact.
“We’ve had some really beautiful stories,” Einhorn said. “They all speak to this idea that The Muppets have a straight line to our hearts – and that’s not just for children. Most adults have their favorite Muppet.” Hers is Grover.
FURTHER READING: Caroll Spinney, the man behind Big Bird and other stars on Sesame Street
“They have a special power, so it’s not surprising that kids relate to them. That’s why Lily looks more like a human rather than a monster Muppet,” she said. “We really needed kids to see themselves in her.”
In true Sesame style, Lily’s family surmounts their crisis.
“That’s what we hope for every child and adult who comes through trauma,” Einhorn said.
Courtesy of The Big Issue Australia / INSP.ngo