PARENT RESILIENCE PROGRAM
NEW Parent Support Program Coming January 2021: Perinatal Education Resilience Collaborative (PERC)
It can be hard and time-intensive to find support that’s the right fit for you and your family. And there is more than one way to improve emotional wellness on the rollercoaster of parenthood. We also know that mental health therapy is one option, but often it’s not the first, or even on the table, for many families.
Some parents arrive at the decision to investigate support after hours googling how parenthood is “supposed” to feel, others arrive having reviewed a pamphlet on “Perinatal Depression” at the pediatricians. However you arrive and whatever direction you want to go, our PERC program is here for you. Everyone experiences perinatal anxiety and mood disorders (PMADs) in different ways, and for this reason, we would like to offer SUPPORT in an equally varied and personalized delivery.
The Perinatal Education and Resilience Collaborative (PERC)is unique in a few crucial ways:
To access any of our programs please call our Warm Line or request a call back.
1-888-404-7763
* se habla español
warmline@perinatalsupport.org
Is this the right program for you?
A Parent Specialist can work with you for as long as needed in order to assure that you feel confident in your next steps towards mental wellbeing. They can meet multiple times a week or just to touch base and debrief how you’re doing. Our Specialists are proficient in web-based support, texting and can be flexible, talking to you on the phone while you’re taking a walk or riding the bus to your therapy appointment. This support will look very different parent to parent and is adaptable as your needs change!
Due to COVID-19 we are offering only remote services at the moment with texting, phone calls, and web-based connection. We look forward to being able to expand our services in time.
If you are in the process of trying to be a parent, pregnant, or parenting and living in King County our local Parent Resilience Specialists are available for you to help make those baby steps strides with confidence. To get more information call our Warm Line and ask for info about PERC.
Meet our Parent Resiliance Specialist Team:
Elizabeth Moore Simpson, LSWAIC, PERC Program Manager
Elizabeth Moore Simpson, LSWAIC, PERC Program Manager
Elizabeth, LSWAIC, has worked with new families for over ten years before coming to PS-WA. She has dedicated her career to the work of ending health and economic disparities for communities furthest away from opportunity. Through an infant-early childhood mental and maternal health lens Elizabeth has practiced as a doula, restorative justice circle keeper, child and family therapist, and community organizer for racial and economic justice.
Additionally, Elizabeth is an Ethnic Minority Specialist with specific training, experience, and connection with the urban native community in Seattle. These are commitments that extend beyond her professional career as a social worker and are integral to how she views her responsibility to those whose land she resides on.
Elizabeth was raised in Seattle, and spends her (fleeting) spare time with her partner teaching their little one to fight the power!
Elizabeth.MooreSimpson (at) perinatalsupport (dot) org
Jazmin Rico Diaz, Parent Resilience Specialist
Jazmin Rico Diaz, Parent Resilience Specialist
Jazmin Rico Diaz was born in Mexico City and grew up between Seattle and South California. She is the mother of two boys and the survivor of a pregnancy loss and two emergency C-Sections. She is driven by her experience and resilience to support others.
Jazmin has her BA in Psychology and went to school to become a Mental Health Therapist, but parenthood changed her path. As she was going to school she was also working in various roles supporting families. Jazmin is bi-lingual and has always loved volunteering as a parent coordinator, supporting minorities and non-English speakers. Having worked in the medical field: from being a receptionist for the medical and behavioral health department as well as an Executive Assistant, Behavioral Technician, working with kiddos on the spectrum, Jazmin has a passion to support parents. After reflecting and looking into her experience with trauma, pregnancy, loss, postpartum, and going through it alone, Jazmin's passion led her to PS-WA. "I felt that I belonged and being a part of the PERC program makes me feel that I'm home. Doing what I once needed someone to do for me - to be there."
Clysta Cole, Parent Resilience Specialist
Clysta Cole, Parent Resilience Specialist
Clysta is an Inuit/YuPik mother and proud to be one of the first ever Parent Resilience Specialists to join Perinatal Support Washington. Clysta joined the team with a background of life experiences of continued trauma from childhood trauma, furthering trauma experiences, and is a Domestic Violence survivor. She is an advocate for reducing trauma with a passion for peer support as well as being trained as a full spectrum Indigenous Doula and a 2020-2021 Native Action Network Leadership Cohort participant. She volunteers her time in her community including being the first Aunty with United Indians of All Tribe's Ina Maka Family Program.
She understands the importance of being supported and feeling supported in all aspects of our lives, especially during the perinatal period. With the knowledge she gained from the combination of life experience, navigating mental health care, and her individual journey through finding her foundation in healing, she knows that we need to have more support in our communities, especially for our mothers in the early stages of their journey. She is a firm believer that it takes a village to raise a child, she also knows that it takes a village to support our parents.
Latonia Westerfield, Parent Resilience Specialist
Latonia Westerfield, Parent Resilience Specialist
Latonia joins Perinatal Support Washington as a new team member of The Parent Education and Resilience Collaborative (PERC) program. She will support pregnant and parenting families as a parent resilience specialist and serve as an encouraging resource and witness for parents navigating the mental health landscape during the perinatal period. Latonia has spent the last 6 year advocating for families, attending births, and providing compassionate care as a birth doula and student midwife. She is very close to completing her training as a student midwife at Birthwise Midwifery School and is set to graduate this winter. After graduation, she will continue to apprentice with local midwives of color to meet the requirements for WA state licensure.
Prior to beginning birth work, Latonia studied maternal and infant morbidity and mortality as an undergrad and social-cultural anthropology major at University of Washington until she graduated in 2011. In all of her work and roles, Latonia uses the framework and lens of reproductive justice, equity, inclusivity, and radical rest politics to critically examine and dismantle structural and systemic inequality and oppression. Latonia lives with her five vibrant daughters in South Seattle, where lots of dance parties take place in the kitchen while cookies are baking. She looks forward to the springtime when she can spend countless hours nourishing her soul in the garden with her hands in the warm earth. In the meantime, she enjoys binge listening to podcasts that center black femme narratives.
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.
