A Place of Our Own (Los Ninos en Su Casa)

Public television’s commitment to programming for children acquired a new dimension with A Place of Our Own, KCET’s ambitious public-service project aimed not at pre-kindergarten kids directly but at the “parents, grandparents, childcare providers, nannies” and others who take care of them. Under executive producers Stephanie Drachkovitch and Mary Mazur, directors Hal Grant and Lisa Monares, and producers Joyce Campbell, Shahnti Olcese Brook, Ellen Raphael, Allison Barksdale, Lusi Garcia, Daily Ruiz, and Audry Yi created the project’s video component: 240 half-hour episodes (120 in English, 120 in Spanish). With Debi Gutierrez hosting the former and Alina Rosario the latter, the series each day addressed a different issue, concept, or activity: expressing feelings and emotions, outdoor vs. indoor play, sharing, discipline, story time. These topics were presented by way of roundtable discussions on the show’s set with parents and daycare workers. Broadcasts also included advice from child development and psychology experts and segments taped on location at childcare facilities. The broadcasts’ ideas were reinforced with websites, again one English, one Spanish, that together achieved more than 1.5 million page views over the year. Plus, KCET conducted more than 200 bi-lingual workshops for caregivers around the state of California. For giving families and childcare workers an informative and affirming place to turn for help, a Peabody goes to A Place of Our Own.