Meet Lily, the first homeless 'Sesame Street' character

[BeckyDem]

Signal at how not awesome the US is. Ya have to love Sesame Street, they've been telling kids the truth for decades.


Meet Lily, the first homeless ‘Sesame Street’ character

Published: Dec 12, 2018 2:23 p.m.

C is for compassion.

Lily, a 7-year-old “Sesame Street” Muppet, debuted in 2011 to portray food instability. She and her family have since lost their home, the story goes, and are now crashing with friends. The character’s return on Wednesday is part of a new children’s homelessness initiative from the makers of “Sesame Street,” which seeks “to help mitigate the impact of the trauma and stigma that result from homelessness.”

“(S)he’s not brand new, but this seemed like a really perfect extension of her story, so that we could use her to help children identify with,” Sherrie Westin, president of global impact and philanthropy for the nonprofit Sesame Workshop, told CNN. “With any of our initiatives, our hope is that we’re not only reaching the children who can identify with that Muppet but that we’re also helping others to have greater empathy and understanding of the issue.”

The initiative is part of the Sesame Street in Communities program from Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit behind “Sesame Street.” Its aim, Westin said, is “to give service providers, parents, teachers tools in order to address homelessness with children, in order to talk about it and raise awareness of the issue from a child’s perspective, and also to help children experiencing homelessness feel less alone.”

An estimated 2.5 million children in the U.S. experience homelessness every year, according to a 2014 report from the National Center for Family Homelessness — shaking out to nearly one in 30 children. In New York City this past October, according to the Coalition for the Homeless, there were 15,572 homeless families with 23,136 homeless children sleeping nightly in the city’s municipal shelter system.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/meet-lily-the-first-homeless-sesame-street-character-2018-12-12

[jberryhill]

1. Oscar the Grouch wasn't homeless?

What sort of housing code says it’s okay to live in a garbage can?

[BeckyDem]

2. ha ha very good.

[Aristus]

3. One could argue that he chooses to live in a trash can.

"I Love Trash" is his signature song, after all.

The vast majority of homeless people don't choose to be homeless. Despite some ill-informed snarking by repukes, and even people who should know better.