How Elevate Prize Is Supporting Sesame Workshop With Its 2025 Catalyst Award

Elevate Prize CEO Carolina Jayaram, Teen Vogue Editor-in-Chief Versha Sharma, global legends Bert and Ernie, Elevate Prize Founder Joe Deitch, and Sal Perez, Executive Producer and VP, Sesame Street productions, at the 2025 Elevate Prize Summit in Miami

For 55 years, the characters of Sesame Street have taught us how to count, how to read — and as importantly, how to be kind, empathic and compassionate.

Now, their important work can continue - thanks, in part, to the Elevate Prize Foundation.

At the Elevate Prize Foundation’s Make Good Famous Summit, the Sesame Workshop, was honored with the Elevate Prize Catalyst Award — a prize previously given to changemakers like Malala Yousafzai, Dwyane Wade, Matt Damon, and George and Amal Clooney. The award includes $250,000 in unrestricted funding and is given to cultural icons using their influence to inspire global social action.

But this time, the spotlight was on the characters, with Bert and Ernie on stage in Miami, and Sal Perez, the Executive Producer of Sesame Street, accepting on their behalf.

And it couldn’t have come at a more important time for the wellbeing of children around the world.

Sesame Street is powered by a global nonprofit, Sesame Workshop. It creates joyful, lovable content — yes — but behind that is a deep, strategic mission to help kids grow “smarter, stronger, and kinder.” And in a world where 1 in 5 children now struggles with mental health challenges, that mission has never been more urgent.

“Not a lot of people know that Sesame Workshop is a global nonprofit,” said Sal Perez, Executive Producer of Sesame Street. “To be able to have an opportunity to highlight that work that we do, not just on the show Sesame Street, but the work that we do helping kids and families around the world around those challenging topics, it’s a great opportunity for us to show that in a lot of ways — to elevate that, pun intended.”

Sal Perez, Executive Producer and Vice President Sesame Street Production

Perez oversees the show’s global live-action content — from long-running co-productions in Germany, Jordan, and Latin America, to YouTube and social media. Sesame Street now reaches more than 150 countries and speaks in over 70 languages. But while its global footprint is vast, the show’s message remains deeply personal.

Every year, the team sits down with educational advisors to ask one question: What are kids struggling with right now?

“In this moment in time, emotional well-being and mental health are so important,” Perez said. “We show our characters identifying emotions. Just naming a feeling is powerful. Then we offer a tactic to help — but we do it in a Sesame way.”

In one recent episode, Elmo gets angry when a ball knocks over his block tower. Rather than skipping over the meltdown, the show teaches a “volcano breath” — with Elmo practicing alongside a puppet volcano. It’s silly, it’s specific, and it lands.

This kind of modeling isn’t just for the screen — it ripples out into real life. As one mother, Johana, shared: “Now when my 6-year-old son is feeling angry or frustrated, he stands up and breathes like Ernie. It has helped my children a lot, and me as well.”

“It’s funny and really emotional at the same time,” Perez said. “That’s how we connect.”

That connection extends far beyond the screen. On their website, parents and caregivers can find a deep library of free bilingual resources — designed to help families navigate everything from grief and food insecurity to parental addiction and incarceration. Some content is for kids. Some is for adults. All of it is practical, compassionate, and accessible.

“This award helps sustain that work,” said Perez. “It pushes forward what we’re doing.”

The timing couldn’t be more fitting. May is Mental Health Awareness Month — a time when millions of children are quietly struggling with big feelings and few tools to process them. What Sesame Street offers isn’t just emotional literacy — it’s relief. It’s hope.

And they do it without preaching. “If we rammed the message down, we’d lose the audience,” said Perez. “Kids are honest about what they like.” He added, “We lean into what feels organic to our characters. When we lead with story and humor, that’s what really connects and makes an impact.”

It’s a powerful reminder for anyone working in impact storytelling: lead with the emotion. Lead with the story.

That philosophy is now guiding the show into its next chapter. Sesame Street has just started production on its 56th season — even without an announced distributor. But instead of pausing, the team is reimagining.

Sesame Street

“We’re introducing a new format and an all-new animated segment,” Perez said. “It’s about delivering more comedy and playability — so kids can extend the experience beyond the screen by imagining themselves playing with or as their favorite Sesame Street friends.”

That evolution reflects a deeper truth: the media landscape keeps changing, and Sesame Street continues to change with it.

“Wherever kids are, we try to be — streaming, YouTube, WhatsApp, our website, even direct service in communities,” Perez said. “Media keeps evolving. When we started, TV was the new technology. We’re always thinking about what’s next.”

But amidst all that change, the core emotional magic of Sesame Street remains. Perez sees it every time someone visits the set.

“When people walk onto the Sesame Street set — celebrities, partners, even parents — they cry,” he said. “It’s like their childhood explodes in front of them.” He added, “It’s an emotional responsibility. You feel the weight of the 50-year legacy and the importance of carrying it forward.”

That sense of belonging — that magic — is something Carolina García Jayaram, CEO of the Elevate Prize Foundation, remembers deeply.

Carolina García Jayaram, CEO of the Elevate Prize Foundation

“I was a toddler when I moved to this country — a little girl, a Latina, an immigrant child of exiles from Cuba,” she said. “When I came here in the mid-70s, we didn’t have a million channels or the internet. So we were all watching Sesame Street. And to me, it gave me the language and understanding of what it was to be in a multicultural country in the most beautiful way.”

She continued: “I saw myself in Sesame Street. They had hosts who were Latina. And then I saw so many other kinds of people and stories that opened my eyes and my mind. That planted seeds that, now many years later, have blossomed into my absolute love for diversity, for difference, for where people come from.”

“Ultimately, what drives that love more than anything,” she added, “is the desire for connection — to really know other people and other humans. And what does that take? It takes tolerance. It takes openness. It takes the willingness to be wrong. All these things that Sesame has taught children for so many generations — in seemingly simple lessons that are profoundly important. And more than any time in my 50 years on this planet, we need to tap back into that.”

That’s the kind of storytelling the Elevate Prize Catalyst Award exists to uplift: not just culture that entertains, but culture that transforms. In a moment defined by anxiety, disconnection, and division, Sesame Street isn’t just part of the past. It’s a vital tool for the future we all hope to have for our children.

And that’s something worth celebrating.