Peer support network helping overwhelmed parents through pandemic

A group of volunteers has formedan online resource to help struggling parents make it through the darkest days of the pandemic a resource some say they wish had been around when they were new moms and dads.

The Village Project is a peer-support networkcreated by parents who are keenly aware of the challenges a new baby can bring, including postpartum depression and anxiety.

"I think a lot of the times we talk about showing up for each other, but with The Village Projectwe want it to be actionssothat we can support and lean on each other," saidMeenakshi Sharma, the project's main organizer.

If you want to chat, if you want to vent, if you want to share joyful moments, I'm here.- Bernadette Betchi, mother and volunteer

Sharma, an advocate for community mental health for years, saidthe initiativefelt like a pressing community need.

Last month, doctors at CHEO, eastern Ontario's children's hospital in Ottawa,reported an unprecedented rise infractured bones and head trauma amonginfants. At the root of the problem, the doctors suggested, were isolated parents struggling to cope, often alone.

'You think you're the only one'

Bernadeth Betchiis a mother of three who wanted to help. For Betchi, motherhood wasn't always idyllic, and she still remembers the anxiety and depression that followed her first birth.

"You don't ask for help because you think you're the only one experiencing this," she said.

Betchisaid she's hoping to help change thatfor other parents by signing up to provide support.

"If you want to chat, if you want to vent, if you want to share joyful moments, I'm here," she offered.

The Village Project started as a social media post and a shareable spreadsheet where new parents could write down their needs, and those with experience or time could sign up to help, from picking up groceries, offering a hot mealor just taking the time to listen.

A model program

Sharma said she was surprised how far word travelled following the initial posts on Instagram and Facebook seeking both volunteers and parents in need.

"We were getting messages from folks in Toronto, from folks in New Jersey and New York asking, 'Hey, wow, this is amazing! How can we do this?'"

For Alicia Gargaro, having The Village Project to lean on would have provideda chance to share her deeplypersonal experienceof losing achild. Instead, she sufferedin silence.

"Having something like the village project at that time might have given me an opportunity to connect with women who have been through this earlier and kind of give me an idea of how to get through the next day," saidGargaro, who shares her personal story through her blog The Resilient Mommy.

Like Gargaro, Betchisaid her struggles would have been more manageable if she'd reached out for help.

"I think seven years ago, when I was going through my postpartum depression, it would have been perfect," said Betchi.