PARENT RESILIENCE PROGRAM
Parent Resilience Program (PERC)
The Parent Resilience Program is a voluntary program providing culturally-matched peer mental health support to US-born Black and Latinx and Spanish-speaking families in select counties. Our model is informed by the needs of our individual participants to provide the unique, tailored support that parents in the perinatal period need to foster, restore, and improve their emotional wellness!
What we do
Each of our Peer Support Specialists are members of their own communities and are able to support their participants with the shared language and expertise of a peer who has been there. They are well-versed in creating helpful and realistic self-care strategies and seek to see the power IN you not empower you.
We offer a hybrid model of in-person, phone, text, and video meeting weekly or bi-weekly for as many weeks or months as the participant needs.
Our services last between 6-12 months and graduate parents who are ready with the tools and resources needed to navigate the challenges of parenthood.
For example this can look like:
- Helping a parent to carve out a realistic mindfulness routine
- Bolstering a parents’ self-advocacy around needed medication adjustments with their provider
- Cheerleading for a parent who is struggling with getting out of the house by going on a neighborhood walk with them
- Resource gathering for social meet-ups for new parent who is struggling with social isolation
- And more!
Who we work with
Culturally-matched peer support is a protective measure for families impacted by system barriers to accessing care, racism and colonial harms and/or currently experiencing perinatal emotional wellness concerns related to birthing.
This includes loss, infertility, pregnancy, and a variety of parenting experiences up to two years postpartum, those who are having a first or any number of pregnancies, as well as people who do not identify as parents, but have experienced mental health challenges related to reproduction/childbearing.
Some examples of perinatal mental health challenges our participants experience include anxiety, sadness or grief around unexpected parenting/birth outcomes, depression, sleeplessness, scary or intrusive thoughts.
In King County PERC provides Culturally-Matched support for:
- US-Born Black families
- Latinx and Spanish-speaking families
In Skagit County PERC provides support for:
- Culturally-matched option for Latinx and Spanish-speaking families
- Peer support open based on availability prioritizing Medicaid eligible families
Who PERC does not serve
- Parents/participants outside of King or Skagit Counties
- Parents with Substance Use Disorders who are not currently engaged in recovery services
- Parents who are currently, or have recently experienced, a mental health crisis resulting in hospitalization and are not actively engaged in mental health services
- Parents whose primary mental health concern is not related to childbearing/conception/loss
Does this program sound like the right fit for you? Call 1-888-404-7763
To access any of our programs please submit a request for services below. Providers can refer via the same link
1-888-404-7763
* se habla español
warmline@perinatalsupport.org
“I hope all your future participants feel the support you have given me”
-PERC Participant
Meet our team
Elizabeth Moore Simpson, PERC Program Manager
Elizabeth Moore Simpson (she/her), LICSW, PERC Program Manager
Is a parent of two and also identifies as a bereaved parent. Prior to joining PS-WA she had over ten years of experience working with growing families. With an infant-early childhood mental health (IECMH) and perinatal health focus, she has held roles as a full-spectrum doula, restorative justice circle keeper, child and family therapist, PMH therapist and community organizer.
Elizabeth practices as a perinatal therapist, abortion doula and is the program manager for PS-WA’s Parent Resilience Program. She enjoys bringing tarot and body-based awareness to her personal and professional practice. She is passionate about supporting families impacted by the child welfare system to sustain, develop and strengthen secure attachments with family and community and working upstream to challenge mandated reporting laws causing harm and distrust between families and providers.
Elizabeth enjoys improvising crafts with her kids and manifesting cozy fall days. She aspires to bring levity, integrity and realness to her work with colleagues and families and can often be found scouring thrift stores for costumes and craft supplies.
Elizabeth.MooreSimpson (at) perinatalsupport (dot) org
Stephanie Valerdi, PERC Program Support Coordinator & Latinx Peer Support
Stephanie Valerdi (she/her/they/them), PERC Program Support Coordinator and Latinx Peer Support
Stephanie Valerdi (she/they) brings over a decade of experience advocating for families and parents through a variety of community-based roles. Stephanie is deeply committed to promoting equity, and accessibility within community services, centering their work around a trauma-informed approach to support families.
With a background in mental health and early childhood education and development, Stephanie has offered compassionate, bilingual support (in English and Spanish) to parents navigating challenges in the birth-to-five age range. Stephanie has provided culturally aligned, strengths-based peer support within the Latinx community and has worked to expand access to Spanish mental health and community resources. Her work is grounded in a passion for improving outcomes for families most impacted by systemic oppression.
Stephanie also brings her lived experience to her work. As a Queer, chronically ill Mexican immigrant and survivor of gender-based violence, she understands firsthand the complexities of navigating the mental health system. She draws on this experience to connect deeply with QTBIPOC (Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous, People of Color) survivors and peers, offering affirming, trauma-informed peer support.
In addition to her one-on-one support work, at PSWA and Qlaw Foundation, Stephanie facilitates Queer parent groups and serves her community as a board member of Somos Seattle a Latinx LGBTQ+ organization, and the WA State LGBQT Commission.
Outside of her work, Stephanie is rooted in both family life and community care. They find joy in everyday moments, spending time in nature with her wife, 9-year-old child, and their dog, or attending drag shows and celebrating Queer & Latinx joy. Stephanie remains fiercely committed to challenging racism, homophobia, and systemic oppression in all its forms, bringing that purpose into every aspect of her daily life.
stephanie.valerdi (at) perinatalsupport (dot) org
La Tonia Bussell-Packard, Peer Support Specialist
La Tonia Bussell-Packard (they/she), Parent Resilience Specialist, Traditional Midwife
La Tonia is a queer Black femme who supports pregnant and parenting families as a Parent Resilience Specialist in King County. They serve as an encouraging resource and witness for parents navigating the perinatal mental health landscape by using their firsthand experience as a parent who has lived with anxiety and depression. La Tonia knows firsthand the barriers that exist for Black and queer folx seeking support for their mental health. La Tonia has experienced personal and professional loss, which allows them to offer supportive tools and skills that are based on lived experience and shared community ways of ‘knowing’ and processing grief and loss.
La Tonia has spent the last 7+ years advocating for families, attending births, and providing compassionate care as a birth doula and student midwife. They graduated from midwifery school in June 2021 and now practice and attend births as a traditional midwife. In all their work, La Tonia centers Black, Indigenous, and QTPOC families in their role as a midwife, doula, and peer. They use the framework and lens of reproductive justice, the intersections of race, class, gender/sexuality, and ability, and radical rest politics when supporting families in their community.
Amy Menjivar, Peer Support Specialist
Amy Menjivar (she/her), Peer Support Specialist
Amy is a Latina and mother of two children and PMAD’s survivor and Bilingual Spanish speaker. She has a passion to provide strong contributions to our society, with awareness of the use of stigmatizing language around mental illness. She has a background in Early Childhood Education and has worked with children for the past 9 years. She has supported King County Families and children of all ethnicities with special needs. She has worked mostly with Latin families as their family support specialist.
Amy is passionate about helping the community, engaging families and building community. She is committed to help immigrants in the community and teach families that there is someone here to listen to them and also to receive help.
Addelle Diedesch, Skagit PERC Program Manager
T. Addelle Diedesch (she/her), MA, LMHC, PMH-C
Addelle is a cis gender, white, neuro-divergant, queer mother of three children and PMAD’s survivor. After she experienced severe PMADs, which “fell through the cracks' and went undiagnosed in her community, she became determined to improve PMAD screening, treatment and reduce stigma in her community. For the entirety of her career Addelle has had a focus on social justice, working with underserved and marginalized families. She has worked with pregnant and parenting individuals, adolescents and families in recovery, and worked within the Stillaguamish tribal community as a chemical dependency counselor in medication assisted treatment. She is committed to serving underrepresented low-income families and making change at a systems level.
Addelle is a child mental health specialist and certified perinatal mental health specialist. She currently provides mental health counseling, provides community mental health consultation and is a community advocate for perinatal mental health.
Crystal Kombol, Skagit Peer Support Specialist
Crystal Kombol (she/her), Parent Resilience Specialist
Crystal has supported youth within the educational system and housing displaced families in Skagit County for the last 8 years. Equitable access to educational opportunities and behavioral health have been a cornerstone of Crystal’s 15 years of social service work.
Crystal experienced unexpected pregnancy complications leading to the premature birth of her child. Art journaling, mindfulness coaching and healing in community helped Crystal endure the highs and lows of both infertility and NICU parenting. Crystal’s lived experience led her to become passionate about advocating for systemic practices that promote perinatal wellness within the whole community.
Briseida Fredrickson, Skagit Peer Support Specialist
Briseida Fredrickson (she/her), Skagit Peer Support Specialist
Briseida Fredrickson is a proud Latina, DACA recipient, and mother to a young daughter. With a background in education, she has worked as a teacher supporting multilingual and diverse learners. Briseida is bilingual in English and Spanish and passionate about creating inclusive spaces where families feel seen and supported. She is deeply committed to giving back to her community and draws on her own lived experiences as a first-generation college graduate and parent to connect with others with empathy and care.
Parent Resources and Handouts
County Resources & Referrals
Due to COVID-19 many of of the support groups below are either not meeting, or are meeting virtually. Please visit our Virtual Support Groups Handout below for all the details.
