Devereux Advanced Behavioral Health California

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Devereux National

 

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History

In 1912, a young Philadelphia public school teacher named Helena Trafford Devereux became discouraged as she saw, firsthand, that children with special needs were underserved by the public education system. Believing she could do better, she began teaching some of these children in her own home. She strongly believed that children, regardless of the level of their disabilities, could learn and achieve personal growth in an environment tailored to their needs.

By 1945, at the request of families on the West Coast, Helena Devereux had traveled from Pennsylvania to California to expand her programs and services. She found an ideal setting in Goleta at a property known as the bluff top "Campbell Ranch," overlooking the Pacific Ocean. The main house on the property, which came to be known as the “Devereux Ranch School,” was the Campbell Manor. Surrounded by acres of wooded groves, sand dunes, estuaries and meadows, the manor, now a historic landmark, served as the main administrative headquarters for Devereux California for more than 60 years. Today, the center’s administrative headquarters is located inside the Jacobs House on the north knoll of the Goleta campus, now part of the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB).