GUILFORD COUNTY -- Sesame Workshop is currently researching how an organization can reach the most vulnerable families and children and Guilford County is involved.
The three pilot cities include, Los Angeles, Kansas City and Guilford County.
"Sesame has a long history of developing programming but they don't know how to get it to communities, how to have it reach the most vulnerable families and the most vulnerable children and that's really what they're hoping to learn in each of the three pilot cities," said Catherine Burnett, Phillips Foundation Chief Operating Officer.
Sesame Workshop is a non profit organization behind Sesame Street, providing educational material to help develop children ages birth through six.
"Being in the south and on the east coast but we're both urban and rural and it would allow them to reach a more diverse audience in their research and development phase of this project," said Burnett.
The pilot program is funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and is in need of spreading its educational material to vulnerable families focusing on social-emotional well-being, health, and early learning.
"The topics that the Sesame Workshop resources already address overlap the types of needs the kids that have experienced domestic violence and other types of trauma and other challenging life circumstances like, hunger, poverty, homelessness,” said Christine Murray, UNC-Greensboro Department of Counseling and Educational Development.
Local officials thought this program would be helpful since kids and parents already know the Sesame brand.
"If people are getting this information from Elmo and from Cookie Monster I think they're going to be a lot more receptive to hearing from it because Sesame is a brand that has a lot of trust and a lot of visibility and recognizability among the general population," said Murray.
Focus groups are being created to help with the development and research phase with Sesame Workshop. The research and development phase will last until March. Sesame Workshop is expected to have an implementation plan ready next summer.