The Florida Department of Corrections is partnering with an unlikely group of people - the folks on Sesame Street.

Sesame Street has developed a program aimed at children who have one or both parents in jail.

Sierra Jones-Wilson's father, Stanley Wilson, has been in and out of jail since she was four years old.

Even though the 20-year-old visited him at the Polk Correctional Institution once a week, she can still list the things he missed while serving time for check and credit card fraud.

"My kids being born, like father and daughter dances, and then like having talk about boys and stuff that would be more on the dad subject then talking to your mom,” she said.

“She is 20. It's been a bitter sweet thing for me to watch her grow up while I'm in here and if it wasn’t for her I don’t think I would have made it this far,” he said.

Visiting her dad in prison is the only interaction Sierra has ever known.

Sierra’s story is common.

Almost 3,000,000 children have a parent in prison nationwide. More than 64,000 of them are in Florida. Plus, the number of children with an incarcerated parent has increased almost 80 percent in the last 20 years.        

Because of the number, Sesame Street has developed the Little Children Big Challenges: Incarceration program.

“Children are often the forgotten ones who have to deal with the parent being incarcerated. We are very excited to announce that Sesame Street had partnered with us in our family reunification efforts,” said Department of Corrections Deputy Secretary Tim Cannon.

DVDs and books featuring Sesame Street characters explain why Mom or Dad isn’t around all the time.

Children are told the circumstances are not their fault.

"It’s a good program because kids want to follow in their parents footsteps trying to do whatever they did and I think on Sesame Street its more positive," said Sierra.

Sierra says she is lucky to have a close bond with her Dad.

Nine other states so far are participating in the pilot program.

Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind Sesame Street, created bilingual program for families with children between three and eight.

Little Children, Big Challenges: Incarceration is designed to:

  • support, comfort, and reduce anxiety, sadness, and confusion that young children may experience during the incarceration of a parent;
  • provide at-home caregivers with strategies, tips, and age-appropriate language they can use to help communicate with their children about incarceration;
  • inform incarcerated parents themselves that they can parent from anywhere, and provide them with simple parenting tips highlighting the importance of communication; and

Sesame Workshop is working closely with advisors and partners to distribute and integrate Little Children, Big Challenges: Incarceration resources into correctional facilities and organizations that specialize in early childhood education, mental health and counseling, parenting programs, foster care, and that have missions specific to helping families cope with the incarceration of a loved one.  

The Department has created a web page with all the Little Children, Big Challenges: Incarceration resources and information located at http://www.dc.state.fl.us/oth/children/. 

The Florida Department of Corrections is the third largest corrections’ system in the United States with over 100,000 inmates and over 120,000 offenders who are serving either probation or parole. Those with family support are less likely to re-offend and re-enter the corrections’ system.