Seed Life Inc. A.E.D. (Accept, Empower, and Determination) Peer Support Services is a program that has Certified Peer Specialist Parents (CPS-P) who are practitioners certified by the state of Georgia through the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities (DBHDD) and the Georgia Parent Support Network (GPSN) who have lived experience. They are parents raising children with mental health, substance use, or human trafficked survivors living with a mental health disorder.

CPS-P’s provides emotional support and self-care to families with children living with mental/behavioral health, substance use, and a victim of Human Trafficking. Through teaching families life skills, coping skills, support groups, crisis prevention, and how to advocate for themselves and their children. A CPS-P also assists with job searches, housing, utility assistance programs, and families with an I.E.P./504 plan (An Individualized Education Plan (or Program), also known as an I.E.P. is a plan or program developed to ensure that a child with an identified disability who is attending an elementary or secondary educational institution receives specialized instruction and related services. A 504 plan is a legal document and instrument developed to provide accommodations and assistance that ensures a child with a disability has access to public education and services. Remember that an emotional disability is considered a qualifying disability, just like a physical or learning disability.) meetings in the school system, navigating the mental health field to find psychiatrists and therapists, and C.S.U. and residential care if needed—education on mental health diagnosis, human trafficking, and effects of substances.

Seed Life Foundation will train families in Human Trafficking, Domestic Violence, Dating Violence, Teen Dating Violence, Anti-Bullying, and Child Safety.

Bernadine Williams, is a CPS-P Provider, Certified Medical Administrative Assistant (CMAA), and the Executive Director of the Seed Life Inc. A.E.D. Peer Support Program. She has been in the Mental Healthcare Field for ten years and works directly with the Gwinnett County Kidsnet/PMAC program in the Juvenile Court System, providing services to needy families. 

What is a Certified Peer Specialist (C.P.S.)?

A Certified Peer Specialist (C.P.S.) is trained and certified to provide ongoing support to individuals and their families receiving mental health and substance use recovery support and services. C.P.S.s work from the perspective of their lived experience to help build environments conducive to recovery. They promote hope, personal responsibility, empowerment, education, and self-determination in the communities where they serve. C.P.S.s trained to assist others in skill-building, problem-solving, setting up and maintaining self-help mutual support groups, and building self-directed recovery tools. A critical role of the C.P.S. is a willingness to self-identify their lived experience, using it as a tool for helping others in developing recovery goals and specific steps to reach those goals.

Certified Peer Specialist – Parent (CPS-P)

A Parent Certified Peer Support Specialist is a parent or legal guardian (in a permanent relationship for at least three (3) years) of a child living with mental health substance use, or co-occurring diagnosis, which supports other parents raising a child with similar behavioral health conditions.

Certified Peer Specialist – Youth (CPS-Y)

A Youth Certified Peer Support Specialist is an individual who is a young adult between the ages of 18 and 26, with lived experience living with a mental health or substance use condition or both, and who has received behavioral health services as a youth and is willing and able to self-identify as a person living with a behavioral health condition and prepared to use that experience in helping other youth and young adults living with similar behavioral health conditions.