Given onstage to Sesame Workshop on the Basis’s Third Annual Make Good Well-known Summit by its Founder Joseph Deitch and CEO Carolina García Jayaram, the award celebrates the enduring kids’s present and its 55-year legacy as a trusted supply of instructional excellence and emotional help for youngsters worldwide, and appears to make sure its future for brand spanking new generations.
The Elevate Prize Catalyst Award acknowledges outstanding figures who use their affect to encourage world social motion. To advance their mission and scale their work, recipients obtain $250,000 in unrestricted funding, in addition to invaluable improvement assets and partnership alternatives. Previous recipients embody Dwyane Wade, Michael J. Fox, Matt Damon, George and Amal Clooney, and Malala Yousafzai, amongst others.
“With 1 in 5 kids going through psychological well being challenges, our work feels extra essential than ever.”Submit this
“On behalf of my mates at Sesame Avenue, I’m honored to just accept the Elevate Prize Catalyst Award, particularly throughout Psychological Well being Consciousness Month, a time after we replicate on the emotional well-being of youngsters and households. With 1 in 5 kids going through psychological well being challenges, our work feels extra essential than ever,” mentioned Sal Perez, Govt Producer of Sesame Avenue. “This award will assist maintain Sesame Workshop’s help for youngsters and households going through a number of the hardest challenges — whether or not that is scuffling with psychological well being, experiencing homelessness, or having a mother or father who’s scuffling with dependancy, and can help our capacity to ship on our nonprofit mission of serving to kids all over the place develop smarter, stronger, and kinder.”
Perez additionally introduced the beginning of manufacturing for the 56th season of Sesame Avenue, wherein the beloved program can be reimagined, giving attendees of the Make Good Well-known Summit a sneak peek of what is to return.
“We have at all times been dedicated to the thought of Sesame Avenue being a radical experiment, and that is the organizational ethos inspiring our newest season. We’re reimagining the present, introducing a brand new format and an all-new animated section exploring never-before-seen places. The brand new construction will allow us to ship extra comedy and playability, so kids can lengthen the expertise past the display screen by imagining themselves enjoying with or as their favourite Sesame Avenue mates. And, in fact, we’ll be welcoming celeb visitor stars to please mother and father and caregivers,” shared Perez.
Perez, along with Bert and Ernie, accepted the award through the closing session of the Make Good Well-known Summit, a worldwide gathering of activists, changemakers, storytellers, leaders, and culture-drivers that started on Might 12. Held beneath the theme “A New Period of Influence,” this yr’s convening inspired attendees to problem conventional fashions of philanthropy and influence and take bolder motion, construct group, and push for inclusive, actionable options to social challenges.
“We’re proud to current this yr’s Elevate Prize Catalyst Award to Sesame Avenue — not only for many years of influence, however for proving that cultural storytelling is a frontline software for world change. For over 50 years, Sesame Avenue has finished what few establishments have: created a trusted house the place kids — and the adults who love them — develop empathy, resilience, and the worth of belonging. At a time when disinformation, division, and psychological well being crises are surging worldwide, we can not afford to lose public applications that mannequin compassion and inclusion at scale. With out applications like Sesame Avenue, we threat a era of youngsters rising up with out a shared ethical compass or protected house to course of the world round them. But when we shield and put money into this type of storytelling, the upside is exponential — a society higher outfitted to lift knowledgeable, emotionally wholesome, and socially aware leaders,” mentioned Carolina García Jayaram, CEO of the Elevate Prize Basis.
In regards to the Elevate Prize Basis
Based in 2019 by businessman and philanthropist Joseph Deitch, the Elevate Prize Basis is a worldwide nonprofit on a mission to Make Good Well-known. To make sure lasting influence, the group is dedicated to bringing visibility to the work of changemakers and galvanizing audiences on a global scale. The muse’s signature program is its annual Elevate Prize, which is awarded to 10 world leaders tackling urgent points in revolutionary methods. The Elevate Prize Catalyst Award, one other one of many basis’s applications, acknowledges outstanding people for his or her dedication to inspiring world social motion and utilizing their affect for the nice of humanity. The muse additionally operates the Elevate Prize GET LOUD Award, a month-to-month grant to gas grassroots actions and organizers on the frontlines dedicated to collective motion and constructing energy amongst communities. The muse’s newest endeavor, Elevate Studios, was launched in 2025 to finance and distribute purpose-driven content material. 


