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Helping lead the push for early childhood development, Perigee Fund makes home on E Pike

(Image: Perigee Fund)

There’s something new on your walk down E Pike that is not a restaurant or bar. And the work inside — with a view of all the good and the bad of the city streets of Pike/Pine — is helping advocates fight for more resources for early child development.

Executive director Becca Graves calls it upstream mental health.

“You can’t get more upstream than working prenatally,” she said.

The offices of the Perigee Fund are now resident on the street level of the auto row-era Greenus Building. The space formerly home to an upscale furniture store and interior boutique is now being used to plan a national philanthropic effort launched in 2018 to help advance work related to early childhood mental health and perinatal mental health.

Graves said Perigee was created to help boost the consistent underfunding of early childhood resources. She points to the Paid Family and Medical Leave Program as a real world manifestation of the kind of outcomes they are supporting. Perigee is about helping the advocates who create, shape, and fight for these programs.

The Perigee Fund was founded by Dr. Lisa Mennet, clinical director of Cooper House, the 14th Ave E provider of therapy and developmental support to young children and their families.

Now settling into its new home on E Pike where it neighbors the incoming Meet Korean BBQ and the rest of the commercial tenants in the Hunters Capital-owned building, Graves said the choice of location was about being close to the city’s core.

“Capitol Hill is a really great location for our team,” Graves said. “It’s downtown but not downtown.”

The director said the best way to help Perigee — a name inspired by the point at which its orbit brings the moon closest to the earth — is to joint it in supporting advocates for early childhood resources and helping to address issues of social challenges and mental health as close to the start of a child’s life as possible. She points at bills like this one that would help make childcare more affordable in Washington.

“Now is a great time to contact your state and local representatives to talk about support early child development,” Graves said.

The Perigee Fund is located at 500 E Pike. You can learn more at perigeefund.org.

 

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