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In the Beginning
Born on February 2, 1885, Helena Devereux did not grow up as a member of Philadelphia high society. Instead, young Helena was to become, like many young American women of her generation, a schoolteacher. She graduated from the Philadelphia Normal School and obtained her first position as a teacher in the Philadelphia public schools in 1906.
With her meager income, Helena helped to financially support her family and even assisted her brother Robert with the expenses of his medical education. As a young elementary teacher in an underprivileged area of the city, Miss Devereux immediately became interested in the children who experienced difficulty in learning through traditional methods.
The current public school system had no means of providing individualized programs for children with special needs. Rather than helping these students find a path that would enable their growth, such children were repeatedly held back, ostracized by their peers, and written off as hopeless, or sent to mental institutions. Helena Devereux showed unique patience and attention to the special children that she encountered. Several such children, who had been held back and failed in other classes, began to thrive under Miss Devereux’s care and innovative teaching methods.
Every Person is a Program
From 1906 to 1908, Miss Devereux began using an individual approach to the teaching of the developmentally delayed, at a time when a “slowed-down” curriculum plus repetition, or custodial care, were the generally accepted mainstream alternatives. Her methods were groundbreaking and they pre-dated many of the advanced practices in the field of special education.
As is true of the Devereux clients of today, Miss Devereux believed that each child in her care came complete with his or her own set of innate abilities, distinctive potential and unique needs. She made it her purpose to aid them in the discovery that each one could be a contributing and valued member of their community and of a larger society.
The Offer
In 1912, the Philadelphia Board of Education offered Miss Devereux a position as the first director of special dducation in the Philadelphia School System. Miss Devereux was convinced that she had to do more than manipulate the educational setting of these children in order to enable them to thrive and grow. They needed a careful restructuring of their whole lives, integrating lessons and individualized programs into their daily routines, from dressing to eating to social activities. Helena Devereux believed that disabilities need not cause feelings of difference and isolation but instead had the power to create strength of character, bringing each child closer to a sense of belonging to the larger humanity to which each child longed to be a part. With these principles in mind, Miss Devereux turned down the Board of Education’s offer, deciding instead to begin working with children on a private basis.
In 1911, a rented summer home in Piermont (now Avalon), New Jersey would become her first residential setting where new skills could be taught outside of the classroom in a family environment. From 1912 to 1918, Miss Devereux opened her home to various children who became a member of her family, each one comprising a key part of a family unit where they were given responsibilities and were taught to achieve a sense of independence and purpose for themselves. It became clear to Miss Devereux that a residential setting in which each child could become a family member offered optimal hope for the long-term well being of the child and to some groups of the emotionally disturbed. Giving each child a lesson in manners, proper dress, and patterns of speech, and encouraging participation in various recreational activities of the day, became instruments for Miss Devereux in enabling each child to feel that their challenges were merely a part of their individuality what made each one human.
The $6 Loan
In 1918, Miss Devereux used $94 of savings and borrowed $6 to begin her first residential treatment program in Devon, Pennsylvania. As news of Helena Devereux's work spread, so did requests from parents of children who had special needs -- families from Pennsylvania, California, Texas and from other states. Miss Devereux's reputation also attracted professionals from education, psychiatry, psychology and social work who wanted to work with this pioneer as she helped her "special" youngsters.
Continuing to forge the path
Helena Devereux died at the age of 90 in 1975 after witnessing 60 years of success and growth in her organization. Prior to her departure, she empowered a new leadership team to continue forging new paths, always looking ahead to a bright future for Devereux clients. This could only be accomplished by staying true to our own unshakable foundations built from the ground up by the drive of one woman and her irrepressible dream.
Today
Today, following the philosophy of Helena Devereux, close to 6,000 staff members, at all levels, provide professional and quality care to more than 15,000 individuals annually in eleven states. These children, adolescents and adults come to Devereux from 43 states and five foreign countries. In a wide range of settings -- from home, school, vocational and community to campus-based programs and hospitals -- Devereux provides services to individuals of all ages who have emotional, developmental and behavioral needs. |
