In Fall 2010, NFDA announced that it was partnering with Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit organization behind Sesame Street, to distribute When Families Grieve, a bilingual (English and Spanish) multimedia resource kit, featuring the Muppets from Sesame Street, for young children and families who have experienced the death of a parent. These FREE kits are still available – now is the time to stock up for 2012!

When Families Grieve, which was developed by leading experts in child development and mental health, aims to reduce the levels of anxiety, sadness and confusion that children may experience following the death of a parent. This kit provides families with age-appropriate tools to assure children that they are loved and safe, and that, together with their family and friends, they can comfort one another and move forward. Click here to read NFDA's original announcement, which contains more information about the contents of the kit.

Please consider your needs for 2012 and order accordingly. Because the need for these materials is so high, Sesame Workshop plans to ship kits only once to each organization. There will not be an opportunity to reorder until they are able to produce another batch of kits.

To order, please send an email to Sesame Workshop (grief@sesame.org) containing ALL of the information below:

• Your funeral home name
• Indicate that you are a member of the National Funeral Directors Association (If you are not a member of NFDA, you may order copies of the kit; simply indicate that you heard about When Families Grieve from NFDA).
• Your name
• Your email address
• Your phone number (please indicate whether this is your office, mobile or home phone number)
• Shipping Address (no P.O. boxes)
• Shipping City, State, Zip code
• Number of kits you would like
• Indicate whether you have ordered and distributed these kits before

NOTE: Due to an overwhelming response, please allow 6-8 weeks for shipment of your kits. If you have questions about the status of your order, please send an email to grief@sesame.org.

You may view the materials in the When Families Grieve kit by visiting www.sesamestreet.org/grief. You may want to include this link on your funeral home website.

Please remember, these are kits for the general public and are bilingual English/Spanish kits. You may not resell them; they must be distributed at no cost.

If you work extensively with military families and would like the military family version of the kit, please email Sesame Workshop at grief@sesame.org for more information.