New and downloadable grandparents guide will help nurture children’s social and emotional development

UnitedHealthcare and Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit educational organization behind Sesame Street, are celebrating National Grandparents Day on Sept. 12 with a new "Grandparents Are Grand!" guidebook. The free resource is available to download at www.grandparentsday.com, providing grandparents fun new ways to connect with grandchildren and build social and emotional skills.

The “Grandparents Are Grand!” guidebook is the latest resource in Sesame Workshop’s Growing Every Day, Every Way program made possible by UnitedHealthcare. Since 2010, Growing Every Day, Every Way has provided educational resources for families on developmental milestones, including the importance of making nutritious food choices and incorporating physical activities into daily routines.

"Grandparents Day gives us an opportunity to celebrate grandparents and their role in raising kids, sometimes as primary caregivers, by acknowledging their contributions and supporting them," said Tim Spilker, CEO, UnitedHealthcare Community & State. "COVID-19 has created unique challenges for families to connect, interact and build healthy relationships together. UnitedHealthcare is grateful for the opportunity to partner with Sesame Workshop — a leader in early childhood education — to meet that challenge with resources to help children establish lifelong healthy habits."

According to the 2019 U.S. Census American Community Survey, there are more than 70 million grandparents in the United States, including 2.4 million "grandparent caregivers" with primary responsibility for grandchildren under 18 who live with them. Grandparent caregivers are often longer-term primary caregivers, with 15% responsible for their grandkids for longer than five years. Additionally, more than 7 million grandparents are living with a grandchild under the age of 18.

“Sesame Workshop is dedicated to helping improve the health of the whole family across generations,” said Dr. Jeanette Betancourt, senior vice president of U.S. Social Impact at Sesame Workshop. “We’re thrilled to team up with UnitedHealthcare once again in honoring the important role that grandparents play in young children’s lives this Grandparents Day.”

To learn more about new Grandparents Day resources and Grow Every Day, Every Way, visit https://www.GrandparentsDay.com.

About Sesame Workshop

Sesame Workshop is the nonprofit media and educational organization behind Sesame Street, the pioneering television show that has been reaching and teaching children since 1969. Today, Sesame Workshop is an innovative force for change, with a mission to help kids everywhere grow smarter, stronger, and kinder. We’re active in more than 150 countries, serving vulnerable children through a wide range of media, formal education, and philanthropically funded social impact programs, each grounded in rigorous research and tailored to the needs and cultures of the communities we serve. For more information, please visit sesameworkshop.org.

About UnitedHealthcare

UnitedHealthcare is dedicated to helping people live healthier lives and making the health system work better for everyone by simplifying the health care experience, meeting consumer health and wellness needs, and sustaining trusted relationships with care providers. In the United States, UnitedHealthcare offers the full spectrum of health benefit programs for individuals, employers, and Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries, and contracts directly with more than 1.3 million physicians and care professionals, and 6,000 hospitals and other care facilities nationwide. The company also provides health benefits and delivers care to people through owned and operated health care facilities in South America. UnitedHealthcare is one of the businesses of UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH), a diversified health care company. For more information, visit UnitedHealthcare at www.uhc.com or follow @UHC on Twitter.

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