Today, more than 6,000 Devereux staff provides services to tens of thousands of children, adolescents, adults, and their families in 11 states and millions more across the country through public education and prevention programs each year.
[2] At a time when very little was known or understood about people with disabilities, Devereux took an interest in “slow learning” children.
She recognized early that the public school system was ill-equipped to teach children with mental handicaps.
[2] While the system had typically referred to slow learners as “throw-aways” Devereux believed that every child should be given opportunities to learn and achieve personal accomplishments.
In the summer of 1911, Devereux rented at six-bedroom home in Avalon, New Jersey in order to teach and care for eight children.
Between the years of 1910 and 1918, Devereux participated in several post graduate endeavors, including the study of psychiatry, psychoanalysis and speech therapy at colleges and universities in the Philadelphia area.
In 1914 she began working for the Philadelphia Normal School in order to teach post graduate students in the country's first course on special education.
[5] In 1920 Devereux purchased another property in Berwyn, Pennsylvania in order to provide a home to some of the younger developmentally disabled children in her care.
[5] Despite an operating deficit of $250,000 during the Great Depression, Devereux continued to acquire real estate throughout the Philadelphia area.
[5] In 1943 The Devereux Foundation expanded tremendously, purchasing another building in Devon as well as a 350-acre estate in Santa Barbara, California.
In 1958 Devereux became the first non-medical person, and only the fourth woman to become an honorary member of the American Psychiatric Association.