Sesame Street provides Comfy-Cozy Spaces for healing within housing

Motivational string music builds as the view approaches a group of people under a large, clear tent on a concrete patio behind a building. A blue banner with white text appears in the bottom left: 

ONSCREEN TEXT:     Clarkston, Georgia 

Around the tent, families with young children wearing face paint gather. Two adults clap, leading a group of children in an activity. A woman in a white, ruffle-sleeved blouse speakers against a wall of children’s drawings, and a blue banner shows her name and attribution in white text:

ONSCREEN TEXT:     Beverly Burks
                                    Mayor of Clarkson

BEVERLY BURKS: Clarkston is the most diverse city per square mile. The diversity of our community where you see children with 60 different languages.

Beneath the tent, a balloon artist forms a hat and places it on a child’s head. One child in the group waves a balloon sword, while another skips through the gathering with a smile.

BEVERLY BURKS: We have new Americans, and part of being a new American is acclimating into our community and learning our language.

Now a woman in a dress printed with poppies speaks in front of a Big Bird mural. A blue banner in the lower left corner reads:

ONSCREEN TEXT:     Audrea Rease
                                    Star-C, Executive Director

AUDREA REASE: Star-C provides wraparound services to affordable housing communities, but we primarily serve people who make on the lower or moderate income side: working families who have elementary-aged children, or families who have elderly people as well, because we serve the entire family so the entire age spectrum is who we serve.

Three children carrying balloon swords run toward an Elmo mascot for a hug. Beneath another tent, a man in a blue polo shirt hands a child a backpack. A smiling parent in a headscarf looks on. Now the man in the polo shirt speaks before the Big Bird mural, with a banner in the bottom left corner:

ONSCREEN TEXT:     Michael Minor
                                    UnitedHealthcare
                                    CEO, Community Health Plan of Georgia

MICHAEL MINOR: The Comfy-Cozy Spaces are one of those resources to help really families and caregivers help kids.

Sesame Street decals scatter across a soft yellow wall. In the corner, a bookshelf decorated with Sesame Street characters sits beside a child-sized chair, and throw pillows in matching blues and yellows rest on a bench. A blue banner with white text descends on the right of the view:  

ONSCREEN TEXT:       

UnitedHealthcare Comfy-
Cozy Spaces are Sesame
Street decorated,
child-friendly areas
designed to encourage
family connections.

Atlanta is one
of five locations
UnitedHealthcare
launched spaces
in this year.                                                                                   

At a table checkered with images of Sesame Street characters, a child opens a book. Another grabs a small Elmo toy from a row of figurines on the bookshelf. A child flips through a book, and the view returns to Audrea:

AUDRA REASE: We really focus on reading, and the Comfy-Cozy Reading Space will help us with that greatly. It will really help us to engage younger children and the earlier that we can start the better, to get them a strong foundation in reading. And I think just the excitement of having something like this installed will re-engage the older children as well.

A young woman in a Star-C t-shirt and white bucket hat leads a line of children into the Comfy-Cozy Space. The children grin and marvel beneath their face paint.

CHILD: Whoa!

YOUNG WOMAN: Whoa!

AUDREA REASE: I’m really hopeful for the impact that it will have on the children.

Later, a parent watches as two children play with Sesame Street figurines and read at a table. Now the parent sits beside the skipping child in front of the Big Bird mural:

ONSCREEN TEXT:     Krishna Rai
                                    Parent
KRISHNA RAI: I’m really happy coming here and see every day, my kids they are enjoying here. They are reading, they are learning something—every day they are learning something new.

Now, the view returns to Michael:

MICHAEL MINOR: For a lot of people one of the biggest barriers to overall health is access to affordable housing that’s also safe. And so UnitedHealthcare is working on ways to create new affordable housing that also includes other social support services, and we think that providing that is going to be a way to increase overall health outcomes.

Children play with Cookie Monster figurines at the table. Michael nods and smiles at a child in the corner. The Elmo mascot puts their fuzzy arm around a child, and the view returns to Beverly:

BEVERLY BURKS: Partnerships and collaborations are the key to helping build stronger communities. It provides extra resources and access to things that we probably would not have access to.

Krishna’s child and another read in beanbag chairs. Then, Audrea:

AUDREA REASE: The space now just looks so much better than it did before. It’s fresh, it looks new, it’s exciting, and we think that it’s coming at a great time for the space and a great time for the children.  

Audrea, Beverly, and Michael pose with a group of children next to a UnitedHealthcare banner. A white background fades in. In the center, the UnitedHealthcare logo appears—a stylized, navy-blue letter U that splits into three stripes on the right-hand side. The logo disappears, and text appears in the middle before the view fades to black:

ONSCREEN TEXT:     United
                                    Healthcare