About Us

 Barbara approached the school district during the summer of 1982 and advised them that in September they would have six teenagers with very special needs attending their school district. They advised her that they did not have a class for such children. A special class was established in Santa Monica for our teenagers and a special teacher, Mr. Richard Jacoby, was hired to teach them. Richard designed his classroom after the special education models. Three hours after his first student entered, his classroom had been redesigned by his student, Dara. 

 School was difficult for the residents. The bus would arrive at 7:00AM and return at 5:00PM. They were expected to stay in their seats for the two-hour ride and behave. Their behavior problems often led to them being sent home or suspended from school. We managed to get an aide for the long bus ride and eventually the class moved to Malibu, which was the end of the tow-hour special ed. bus.  In 1986, Esperance was able to purchase its own home and moved from Point Dume in Malibu, to Malibu West. Two of the residents reached the age of 22 in 1988, and the school was no longer able to provide an educational program for them. They had become adults and Esperance began the transition from group home for teenagers to an adult residential facility. 

There was no day program for adults in Malibu at that time, so Barbara approached the Regional Center and asked to become a vendor to establish one.  In 1989, Art and Deanna Tyree became house-parents for the Malibu residential home. Together with Barbara and Roy they visited property in Clovis, CA which had been donated to Esperance Center by another nonprofit company. After this visit, Art and Deanna expressed their interest in running another program like the one here in Malibu. Thus, Esperance Center North was born. Deanna has remained director of this program since 1991. The program enjoys the same excellent reputation in Clovis due to Deanna’s hard work, knowledge, and dedication.