While our servicemen risk their lives overseas, their families and children must cope with uncertainty and upheaval at home. To help military families and children better adapt to frequent moves, parental separation and other challenges, the Pentagon collaborated with Sesame Street to create a new site chock-full of resources for parents.

Sesame Street for Military Families is “a free, bilingual (English and Spanish) website where families can find information and multimedia resources on the topics of military deployments, multiple deployments, homecomings, injuries, grief, and self-expression.”

It is a digital descendent of several Sesame Street programs targeted at military families, including Talk, Listen, Connect and Families Near and Far. All of the resources provided by old Sesame Street initiatives will be included under the Sesame Street for Military Families umbrella.

A study earlier this year found that military children with deployed parents are more likely to engage in risky behaviors such as binge drinking, drug use and fighting at school. This trend was linked to the stress of constantly switching communities and worrying over a parent’s absence.

The new site will hopefully turn that trend around. Parents who need help having tough conversations with their children about an upcoming deployment or grief can turn to the website for guidance. Children, too, can visit the website to create art and music to express themselves in a safe manner.

In an interview with Task and Purpose, Rocio Galarza, assistant vice president of the Sesame Workshop, expressed hope that the website will make a difference in the military community.

“Military families are important to us, and we will continue to try to develop materials,” Galarza said. “We’ve grown with military families, so we hope to be able to support them.”