Sesame Workshop and PSEG Help Families Get Ready for Emergencies

On Oct 7, 2014

In 2013, more than 85 nationally declared emergencies including hurricanes, tornados, floods and fires were recorded, and yet, according to a national survey, 60% of families in the U.S. do not have any emergency plan.  In response, Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit organization behind Sesame Street, has partnered with PSEG Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG), to develop Let’s Get Ready: Planning Together for Emergencies, and Here For Each Other: Helping Families After Emergencies, free emergency preparedness and response initiatives in English and Spanish.

The PSEG Foundation has committed $1.3 million to develop the initiatives aimed at instituting emergency preparedness into families’ routines through simple tips, strategies, and activities, as well as prepare families with effective and comforting ways to respond when a disaster occurs.

With the help from Elmo, Let’s Get Ready and Here For Each Other launched today, October 7, with a community event at the Ironbound Early Learning Center in Newark and will be followed by an event in Long Beach, Long Island on October 9.  Both locations were heavily impacted by Superstorm Sandy in 2012. The Ironbound section of Newark was the only location within the city to be flooded. Long Beach, Long Island, one of the hardest hit New York communities, is still struggling to recover with a large percentage of homes still uninhabitable.

“Sesame Workshop, with our beloved Sesame Street Muppets, has always addressed educational and community needs through the creative use of media,” said Dr. Jeanette Betancourt, Senior Vice President for Community and Family Engagement at Sesame Workshop. “We believe that a better tomorrow begins by raising smarter, stronger and kinder children today, and in partnership with PSEG, we’re helping families not only create stronger children, but stronger communities as a whole through our emergency preparedness and response initiative.”

“We all try our best to be prepared for an emergency like Superstorm Sandy. But we may not always know when a crisis will strike, which is why it’s so critical for families to talk about action plans proactively,” said Ellen Lambert, President of the PSEG Foundation. “In preparing for an emergency, everyone in the family needs to be involved in planning, including young children. This unique partnership with Sesame Workshop will help ensure that there are tangible long-term impacts to helping families be prepared.”

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