Sesame Workshop

Humanitarian response in the face of the growing global refugee crises, millions of young children do not have access to early childhood development opportunities needed to help them recover from adverse experiences and prepare them to thrive. In addition, sudden onset crisis disrupted learning environments especially for low resource areas. Throughout fy24, sesame workshop continued programs reaching young children and families affected by crisis, conflict, and displacement in the middle east, east africa, eastern europe, latin america, and south asia. Through welcome sesame, sw continued its commitment to working in crisis and conflict settings. Welcome sesame (continued in schedule o) programming leverages educational media that is distributed via broadcast and digital platforms. It is integrated into programs directly serving children and families affected by crisis and conflict in partnership with governments, humanitarian organizations, and local actors. As of now, welcome sesame encompasses work in bangladesh (play to learn), the middle east (ahlan simsim), ukraine, latin american, and east africa. Under welcome sesame, we also responded to the crisis in israel and gaza. In colombia and uganda, sw implemented the inclusion and belonging for displaced learners project in partnership with the hilton foundation. The aim of this project is to build more inclusive communities by providing comfort and emotional support, building foundational knowledge and skills, and promoting socio-emotional development, positive identity, perspective-taking, and belonging. During fy24, we completed the first phase of the project and implemented full curriculum cycle in colombia and uganda in 45 classrooms, reaching 1,917 children. In the second phase, we implemented content in a total of 138 classrooms (30 classrooms in ecuador, 82 in colombia, and 26 early childhood centers in uganda). In ukraine, sw implemented educational media content, in partnership with irex/department of state and delivered caregiver content. The parenting program aims to provide caregivers with knowledge about self-care, psychological support, early learning, and social cohesion to support children ages 3-8. Under this program, we reached more than 500 caregivers and library workers with our parenting program and content. We also renewed our partnership with children's network plusplus in ukraine for another year after successfully reaching 955k viewers through watch play learn in ukrainian. Through internal investments, sw continued to build on welcome sesame content to meet the immediate crisis needs of children and families. In fy24, we completed four welcome sesame emergency response social media campaigns, linked to free to use content, reaching 41.2 million caregivers and created a foundational content package of easily translatable print resources and video content to meet future crises. These resources will ensure that we can meet the needs of children and families immediately following a crisis with adaptable and localized materials. In response to the israel-gaza crisis, we developed trauma packets in arabic and hebrew for parents and caregivers which were distributed via email to a broad network of partners as well as featured in paid social media campaigns throughout the region which reached 800k caregivers on facebook and instagram and 11.4m caregivers on youtube. We also partnered with our long-time broadcast partner in israel, hop!, to create and air psa's and short-form content on their channel. Via the hop! Social media channels, we also reached 1.6m people. The team continues conversations with mission-aligned partners in the region who can extend the impact of this work in response to on-going need. Sesame workshop continued implementation of ahlan simsim in mena, a groundbreaking program that delivers early learning and nurturing care through ecd services to children and caregivers affected by conflict and displacement in iraq, jordan, lebanon, and syria. The initial ahlan simsim grant closed in fy24 and surpassed ahlan simsim reach targets, reaching almost 9 million children in jordan, lebanon, syria, and iraq for a total of over 27 million children across mena. Ahlan simsim also launched season 8 and 9 of ahlan simsim and secured an additional $3 million of funding from the lego foundation, extending the program through december 2024. In iraq, we received a cost extension to continue our ahlan simsim-iraq project under usaid. This is a six-year activity with the goal of building resilience among the displaced and crisis affected children and communities, with themes of inclusion and mutual respect and understanding. Over the course of fy24, we partnered with save the children to deliver facilitator guides for our content, hosted six father engagement events to address the gap of father engagement in early childhood development in iraq, and did critical assessments on inclusive education to identify the needs of children in school settings to ensure that no student is left behind. In addition, we partnered with mercy corps to deliver soft skills training for youth to give them the skills and confidence to tell their stories to the community and increase their sense of belonging. The ahlan simsim iraq project program has already shown results in improving foundation skills, increasing resilience, and appreciation of identity of self and others. The program has also shown results of educators, parents, and caregivers have improved skills to support early childhood development. Through the play to learn (ptl) project, a partnership between lego foundation, brac, irc, and nyu global ties, sw continued its efforts reaching children and families in bangladesh, jordan, and lebanon. Sw elevated awareness, engaged policymakers, and increased investment for early childhood development (ecd) in crisis settings ensuring access to play-based early childhood learning opportunities that are vital to every child's development. In total, play to learn reached over 2.5 million children and families with play-based, community-driven early childhood services, more than doubling the total reach target. Through broadcast and distribution, we reached over 31 million children and dubbed content into 27 languages. In addition to continued programming, sw advocated for the inclusion of young children in crisis response. The ptl team secured opportunities to elevate the importance of ecd and disseminate program learnings and evidence through strategic advocacy events and publications. These included bringing high level visibility for our humanitarian work at donor and industry-facing events like the usaid global education conference, the world economic forum, milken global conference, and the wall street journal's future of everything festival. With the lego foundation and lego group, sesame successfully advocated passing a u.n. Resolution for the first-ever international day of play. Sw continues to explore opportunities to expand programming and deepen impact to ensure that children and families affected by crisis and conflict have access to early learning experiences that help young children grow and thrive.

Global social impactsesame workshop's (sw) international social impact group provides early learning opportunities for young children and families around the world. We partner with local experts, including educators, donors, media organizations, government ministries, and ngos to leverage the power of sesame street's characters and educational approach to help children around the world grow smarter, stronger, and kinder. We design, deliver, and evaluate global multi-media initiatives that are tailored to meet the specific needs of children and families in a particular country or region. The scope of our work ranges from country-specific initiatives in bangladesh, south africa, iraq, and india to multi-country programs and regional (continued in schedule o) projects focused on work in south asia, sub-saharan africa, the middle east, and latin america. Our portfolio tackles thematic areas including emotional well-being, self and belonging, creativity and playful problem solving, language, literacy and stem. In a year marked by challenging operating contexts, sesame workshop strengthened programming to meet the evolving needs of children and families. We developed and distributed materials with new and existing partners, unified our programmatic work and storytelling, worked with colleagues to secure new funding opportunities, and expanded our work to new geographies reaching millions of children and families through mass media, digital outreach, and direct services. In bangladesh, we launched season 16 of sisimpur (bangladesh co-production) in january 2024 and partnered with maasangra tv to broadcast seasons 11-16 and with rtv to broadcast seasons 10-16. Season 16 also marked a monumental step in advancing inclusivity. In partnership with the society of the deaf and sign language users (sdsl), we added sign language to 13 episodes of sisimpur, becoming the first children's content show in bangladesh to include sign language in their content. Under community engagement, the promoting education for early learners (peel, supported by usaid) project reached 20,181 children and trained 1,250 teachers. Additionally, through our new partnership with internet society foundation, we expanded our safe internet in 100 government primary schools with the goal of increasing the capacity of primary grade teachers and of training parents on internet safety. These significant milestones and partnerships will ensure children across bangladesh have access to early education and build capacity for teachers and caregivers. In india, we made significant progress on digital reach through sesame workshop india's (swi) youtube platform. In fy24, we increased youtube subscribers by 1.58m subscribers and reached 10.78m individuals through social media platforms, with an engagement rate of 51%. Under direct services, we engaged over 299,777 children across 2,015 schools in odisha through wash programming (mission swachhata aur pani) to cultivate healthy sanitation habits in children and promote best hygiene practices. We also engaged over 6,000 children under the mera planet mera ghar climate change program through government schools. In south africa, sw continued mass media engagement with takalani sesame (south africa co-production). We produced four new seasons of takalani (s15-18) in five local languages and created additional international street story episodes in jordan for season 18 of takalani. Under digital distribution, we gained 9,000 new subscribers and had a total watch time of 61,000 hours. Under community engagement, we closed out the five-year play to learn program, funded by the lego foundation, in december 2023, which reached 137,000 children, 5,000 parents, 3,000 ecd teachers, 120 social workers and over 500 government officials. Due to the success of the program, we received a one-year expansion grant through the lego foundation. Through this expansion grant we initiated whatsapp user journey testing and hosted a successful stakeholder workshop to advocate for play-based learning, disseminate impact evaluation findings, and consult stakeholders on sustaining the program. Under collective partnership, we collaborated with partners to co-host the south africa national conference on play-based learning, attracting 280 in-person and over 200 online participants. The two-day event aimed to advance the significance of play in early childhood development in south africa, both at home and in formal programs. In latin american (latam), the sw team delivered social impact programming in seven countries: brazil, colombia, el salvador, guatemala, ecuador, honduras, and mexico, and in three languages (maya k'iche, spanish, portuguese). In fy24, we closed out the play every day project in mexico which reached 1,700 ecd centers and pre-schools, more than 124,000 children, 86,000 caregivers, and more than 10,000 ecd professionals; our biggest scale in latam to date. Under the rincon listos a jugar program, we reached 7,108 children in mexico, colombia, and brazil in formal and non-formal educational settings as well as migrants in transit. The program aims to develop the bases for adequate emotional management that contributes to optimal personal and emotional development and establish positive social relationships between children and caregivers. We also secured funding from the internet society foundation to expand digital literacy work in brazil through new psa announcements in addition to developing whatsapp content and a distance learning course for 300 brazilian educators to mobilize around 7,500 children and families. Under plaza sesamo, our latam co-production, we collaborated with nasa en espanol during two eclipse events, launching two successful social media campaigns with 4.3m viewers on youtube and 400k on facebook, becoming nasa en espanol's most popular livestream to date. In fy24, we expanded our health programs and portfolios through multi-country initiatives. Through our multi-country wash up! Program, launched in 2015 in partnership with world vision, sesame workshop brings life-saving water, sanitation, hygiene (wash) education to children in low resource environments. This programming is in conjunction with the wash up! Girl talk program which empowers pre-adolescent and adolescent girls and boys (ages 9-14) to practice and promote healthy water, sanitation, and hygiene (wash) behaviors, particularly around menstrual health and hygiene. In fy24, we expanded our wash up/girl talk! Content library with additions of new languages, gender equity content, and the expansion of girl talk content for boys and relaunched girl talk! In zimbabwe and brought it to el salvador, honduras guatemala, and kenya. We further expanded our work through a new partnership with abbott laboratories to address the prevalence of non-communicable diseases (ncds) across four countries: brazil, india, mexico, and the u.s. Throughout the 2024 fiscal year, the sw international social impact team proactively met the needs of young children and their families across geographies. Remaining nimble and responsive to the changing circumstances of children and families, combined with our ability to create content that is culturally relevant and responsive, we successfully developed and distributed new material to support early learning and child development around the world.

U.s. Social impactin addition to distributing its educational content on mass media platforms, sesame workshop creates and distributes, with philanthropic support, bilingual multi-media educational initiatives and resources that are for the majority of children and families while targeting the most under-resourced or that address specific educational needs. In fy 2024, us social impact tackled additional topics to meet the needs of the most under-served children and families. Emotional well-beingdeepening our multi-year commitment to the emotional well-being of children and their families, us social impact launched new free, bilingual resources in november 2023 focusing on emotional literacy and the connection between mind and body. With funding from kohl's, these new resources included four videos, two articles, a digital interactive game for children, and a digital storybook that shares different ways children and families can take care of their feelings and techniques to promote healthy minds and bodies. An additional five animated videos launched on sesameworkshop.org on june 17, 2024, covering topics from soothing big feelings with big bird to learning self-compassion with rosita.in addition, through our partnership with united healthcare, new resources launched on sesameworkshop.org during mental health awareness month on may 7, 2024, that expand further on existing emotional well-being resources for children and families, providing everyday tools and strategies centered in helping children process what is happening around them when serious concerns arise. The new, bilingual resources include six videos featuring our sesame street friends. Other resources include: three animated "caring for my brain" videos addressing the connection between mental and physical health with a focus on nutrition, sleep, and movement; four printables, resource guides developed by the american psychological association for parents, and providers; and articles to help guide parents on how to support and care for their children's emotional well-being. We garnered 611m+ total impressions, $5.6m cav, and 32 press hits in earned media across all these new emotional well-being resources.from july 2023-june 2024, there were over 175,000 visits by 152,000 users to sesame.org/mentalhealth. We had a social media reach of over 149 million, with 128 million impressions, 2.8 million engagements, and 17 million video views over 356 posts. Over 1,900 providers working with children and families were trained through webinars, conference presentations, and in-person offerings on the emotional well-being resources as of june 2024. Partner toolkits were distributed to 120+ partner organizations and over 84,000 subscribers were reached through partner email newsletters.in addition, we partnered with wounded warrior project (wwp) to support the development of new bilingual, digital resources to support the emotional well-being of young children and their families within post-9/11 military and veteran caregiving households. In june 2024, we launched new resources, following extensive formative research. The resources include a digital storybook titled piece by piece, which is designed for military caregiving families, specifically supporting communication between adults and their children, a digital family guide titled taking care of us: a guide to help military caregiving families grow in emotional well-being, and two articles. In the month following their launch, the resources were viewed 35,000 times by 28,000 unique users.community buildingas part of sesame workshop's yearly commitment to our see amazing in all children initiative, we launched new bilingual resources on sesame.org/autism in april 2024, as part of autism acceptance month, focused on increasing autistic children's ability to self-advocate, problem-solve, and set and achieve goals, and resources to support parents and providers. Part of this suite of new resources included a digital and print storybook (32,250 copies printed), four shareable activities for children, two articles for adults, and a webinar. The storybook, julia and rose best friends fur-ever! Focuses on julia, an autistic 4-year-old muppet, as she uses her persistence to master the responsibilities of dog ownership with help from her family and friends. This storybook continues to be distributed nationwide to our partners as well as various autism programs, child health specialty clinics, local childcare centers, schools, hospitals, community centers and more. This storybook was awarded the human animal bond research institute's human animal bond innovation award in the media category. Together, this suite of new digital resources has been accessed directly by more than 39,000 people from april 1-june 30, and the autism topic page had nearly 59,000 total views during this time. We had a total reach of 2,700,000, with 14,000 engagements (likes, comments, shares), and 4,600 shares (organic distribution) on social. We also conducted paid ad buys throughout june, which had a total reach of 844,675, with 1,913,052 impressions. In june 2024, sesame workshop launched new bilingual resources on the topic of community building through support from the pseg foundation. Continuing the little neighbors initiative originally launched in 2021, these resources nurture children's early understanding of how they are part of community and demonstrate different qualities of good citizens including environmental appreciation, being a good neighbor, volunteerism, compassion and continuous self-improvement. Resources include one muppet video, three animated muppet videos, two articles, five shareable pages, a printed activity book (5,000 copies printed), and a professional development webinar for pseg employees. Resources garnered more than 500,000 impressions throughout the month of june. In september 2023, as part of sesame workshop's continued commitment to supporting military families, we launched new resources on sesamestreetformilitaryfamilies.org (ss4mf.org) to support family and community bonds, with support from the united states department of defense. These new resources include three new muppet videos, three printable activities and six articles for parents that help them support their children. The family and community bonds topic page on ss4mf.org was viewed almost 40,000 times by 21,000 users since its launch.in december 2023, the sesame street for military families' stakeholder summit convened to collaborate on initiatives, improvements needed, and best practices to support military children and families. The agenda included an overview of sesame street for military families (ss4mf) and a facilitated discussion on feedback on existing ss4mf resources and brainstorming the most pertinent needs facing the military community. In may 2024, we produced the ss4mf muppet impact photo and video shoot. The impact shoot took place on military bases around the washington d.c. Area. The goal of the impact shoot was to produce powerful new visuals (photos, video, b-roll) that capture the authentic and vibrant child/caregiver interactions we model through a variety of our ss4mf content topics. The impact shoot included real service members and their families, along with muppets, particularly elmo and rosita, the faces of ss4mf.tough topicswith support from the new york life foundation (nylf), sesame workshop launched new bilingual resources as an expansion of our grief topic page (sesame.org/grief), one of our most popular topics on the site. On november 14, 2023, during children's grief awareness month, these new resources included three new muppet videos, a digital interactive game, digital storybook, three printable activities, and four new articles. We announced our resource launch and recognized nylf as our partner and funder in a press release, which was distributed through our press wire and was picked up by 407+ outlets on the first day of this launch and garnered 211,112,061 impressions. On february 1, 2024, we launched additional grief resources, which included a webinar, provider guide, and an adult-facing interactive, growing as we grieve, which features interviews with leading grief experts and different families' experience of changes and grief caused by the death of a close person. This interactive won a webby award for people's voice winner, best health and wellness website in april 2024. From november 14, 2023-june 30, 2024, the grief topic page was the 2nd top performing topic area on sesame.org. We had almost 90,000 active users and almost 96,000 page views across our resources and had over 352,000 views across our newest grief muppet videos. On social, we garnered over 1.3m impressions and over 600,000 video views.