OUR HISTORY
DePorres Place, Inc. was the vision of a handful of Adrian Dominican sisters and community leaders in 1996. Their dream was to open an adult literacy center in Palm Beach County that would someday provide one-to-one tutoring for those who could not read or write English.
The dream became a reality in 1997 when DePorres Place was incorporated as a not-for-profit literacy center. The first classes were held on May 21st of that year with nine students and three volunteer tutors. The classes thrived. Since 1998, DePorres Place, with the help of 615 volunteer tutors has taught 610 adults to read and write English, and 1390 adults to speak English.
DePorres Place is a highly regarded adult literacy program in Palm Beach County and was honored with the 2009 “Excellence in Education” Award by the Florida Literacy Coalition as “an organization demonstrating achievement, innovation, leadership and organizational excellence”.
As the population of Palm Beach County became more diverse, DePorres Place developed an effective conversational English program — ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) — for adult immigrants who wanted to learn to speak English. At the beginning of the school year in 2002, DePorres P.L.A.C.E. added this ESOL program.
In 2004, DePorres Place became a part of the Dominican Rea Literacy Corporation. This is an umbrella organization of six literacy centers run the Adrian Dominican sisters. As a part of this corporation, DePorres Place became an Adrian Dominican sponsored institution.
DePorres Place is a member of the Literacy Coalition of Palm Beach County, the Florida Literacy Coalition and ProLiteracy America.
Student Success Stories
(Left) Sister Anne Monahan and student, Renee Cadet. Renee studied English at DePorres for two years, and then became one of our Next Step Interns via a program funded by a grant from the Jewish Women’s Foundation.
Renee worked in our offices while developing her resume and Linked In account, learning to use MS Office programs, and documenting her experience for use in her job search.
Renee also passed the entrance exam for college, while interning, and registered for her first class at Palm Beach State College.
Renee is the mother of two young sons, and her bond with her tutor, Sister Anne, is a beautiful testament to the power of mentoring.
David Burney(left) was born in West Palm Beach, and had a rough start in life due to family instability.
He was raised by his grandparents, but their attention was often focused on his sister, who had a serious illness. He struggled in school and was never formally diagnosed with a learning disability or given any additional resources for learning to read.
He came to DePorres Place in 2018, after having made a career as a groundskeeper for the City. He had purchased a home with his wife and they raised two children, one of whom was leaving for his first semester of college in 2018. David said, “Now it’s my turn. I want to learn to read better, and get my GED.” He applied himself to his studies with the great determination, and we kept getting good reports of his progress from his tutor, Clare Wilson. Recently, she gave us a short essay that David had written entitled, “My Favorite Holiday.” This essay is something that would have been impossible two years ago, and it shows his positive attitude as well as his writing skills.
We are very proud of David Burney and we look forward to his future progress toward his goal.

Luckner Rouzard (right) left school as a very young boy in Haiti, in order to work and help support his family. When his siblings became adults, he came to the U.S. and managed to open a small shop in the Northwood neighborhood of West Palm Beach, despite the fact that he couldn’t yet read and write. He came to DePorres Place in 2015 and was matched with a tutor, Philip Verruto who is a retired corporate executive. They began working together, and before long, Luckner could write his name, read short passages, and decipher new words. Fast forward to 2020: Luckner is now using a laptop computer regularly in his business, and reading the news online regularly. The bond that has grown between Luckner and his tutor remains strong, and in 2020, Luckner became a citizen of the United States. We are so proud of Luckner’s accomplishments, and so grateful to Philip for his devotion to helping Luckner meet his goals.
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