Co-founders Dr Patricia Champion and Felicity Champion
Published on
July 8, 2025
/per-VEE-jeh-oh/
From the Latin pervigeō, meaning "to continue to thrive", PerVigeō is more than just a name—it's a vision. Co-founders Felicity Champion and Dr Patricia Champion share the deeply personal experiences that inspired them to create a new kind of service for children and families across Aotearoa New Zealand.
PerVigeō is Latin for "to continue to thrive"—because we believe all children and their families deserve to thrive. But that's simply not the reality for many.
My family counts itself as incredibly lucky: we had resources, and knowledgeable family support. But even with those advantages, the journey to understand what was going on for our eldest child nearly broke us.
It was, and sometimes still is, the most difficult experience of my life—feeling like I was failing as a parent, groping around in the dark looking for the right people, begging different specialists to talk to each other, to work things out collaboratively. I felt completely lost.
And I knew it didn’t have to be this hard. I had seen what my mum (Patricia) and her team had done for others. But our daughter didn’t meet the criteria for government help. She was one of the many children who needed support desperately, but fell through the cracks.
So we decided to do something about it. Together with Mum, we founded PerVigeō—to fill that gap, and to support the many, many families across New Zealand crying out for integrated, timely, compassionate help.
Patricia: “Every Child Deserves the Best We Can Offer”
As we are so aware, all government funded services, whether public or NGO’s are incredibly pushed and can often only see the most urgent or severe cases of babies and little children – not a situation, they, or we, believe is adequate - or right.
So, over the past year, an idea began to take shape: that we could, and should, offer a private service, supported by a charitable trust, to make help more accessible for those experiencing financial hardship.
We aim to create a new pathway to address an unmet need in the community. To offer families a timely, developmental assessment, by skilled, experienced, multi-disciplinary clinicians, working in an integrated model, where concerns can be investigated early, thoroughly and safely. Where we embrace a truly integrated model of practice - guidance given, referrals for further investigations determined, and interventions planned.
This family / clinician partnership model has been my practice as a developmental psychologist for 48 years. It is grounded in developmental science and is research informed.
It is, and always has been, a model embedded in values of trust, integrity, kindness and excellence. All babies and children, whatever their challenges, deserve the best we can offer and this is what we're here to do at PerVigeō.
And no concern—whether from a parent, medical professional, or early childhood teacher—is ever too small.
PerVigeō was founded to respond to a clear, urgent gap in the system. We believe in early, compassionate, family-centred intervention. When children thrive, families thrive—and that’s what drives us every single day.
How PerVigeō supports children and families
We offer a safe, non-judgemental space where your family is welcomed by people who understand. Our team partners with you to explore your child’s unique strengths and challenges and to create a personalised plan for support.
Whether you’re looking for reassurance, advice, or formal assessment, we’re here to help.
Better together
Together, we’ll take the next steps toward helping your child reach their full potential.
