With Support from Chubb Classic and Hotwire, Grace Place for Children and Families Continues Expanding Windows of Opportunity

By Doug Milne

NAPLES, Fla. -- Depending on which side of the comment one is on, “If you can do it, so can I” is taken as either a slight or ray of light.

To the youth involved with Grace Place for Children and Families here in Naples, it is – without question – the latter. Without Grace Place, it could very well be neither. 

Just over 20 years ago, a group of volunteers determined to help children in the Golden Gate community officially turned a loose-knit homework club into Grace Place, a non-profit family learning center.

The objective of the organization is specific: help create pathways out of poverty by educating children and families.

Quickly, hope and motivation became the bricks and mortar for Grace Place’s foundation.   

To help Grace Place continue with its unparalleled assistance in creating brighter paths for people, the Chubb Classic has deemed the organization a key beneficiary, with portions of tickets sales going directly towards Grace Place.

Hinged on the insistence that “Education changes everything,” Grace Place helps well over 1,000 individuals and adults each year to build language, literacy and life skills through a comprehensive family literacy model.

“Grace Place provides pathways out of poverty through education to help break the cycle of poverty,” said Stacey Vaughn, Chief Development Officer, Grace Place for Children and Families. “We educate our youngest learners all the way on up to an 82-year-old in our Adult Education program.”

In 2019, Grace Place became one of the first organizations to receive the Pearl Literacy Award from the Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy. Its nationally recognized Bright Beginnings program, a Grace Place Family Literacy Model®, serves preschool children and their parents. Grace Place School Age Programs, partially funded by the Florida Department of Education, provide after-school, summer and college access programming to K-12 youth.

Families involved with Grace Place hail from a 4-square-mile radius in Golden Gate City, part of Naples.

“They are our landscapers, our roofers, our contractors, our bussers and servers at our restaurants,” Vaughn said. “In order to change their pathway out of poverty, they need to learn how to read, write and speak in English. One isn’t going to move from the back of the kitchen to the front without being able to take an order in English.”

Grace Place’s pre-school program differs from traditional ones in that Grace Place requires at least one parent to stay. The belief is that while a child is learning to read, write and speak in English, a parent is in the classroom, typically learning how to also learn to read, write and speak in English.

An after-school program is designed to help make sure homework is done, that they get fed and leave with a lesson learned as a way to get ahead of their peers in their grade. Grace Place also features an adult-education program at night, which teaches English, financial literacy, digital literacy and citizenship classes. Knowing that the ability to learn is hindered by hunger, Grace Place also holds a Friday food pantry.

Similar to 2024, on Tuesday of this week, roughly a dozen students were selected to visit Tiburón Golf Club, site of this week’s Chubb Classic presented by SERVPRO, thanks to Hotwire. Students were invited based on their level of program participation, high school GPA and a genuine interest in building a bright future.

“We are very, very blessed to have Chubb and Outlyr for the incredible work they do for our families and students,” Vaughn said. “Plus, it’s incredible just to have the opportunity to be here at the Chubb Classic to expose our high school kids to other careers that exist surrounding an event like this.”

Vaughn also noted that without a golf course in Golden Gate City, many of the kids have likely never even seen a golf course.

“Their initial mindset before coming out here today may have been, ‘Well, I’m not going to be a professional golfer’,” said Vaughn. “But, we all know how many other careers go into making a professional golf event happen. So, for them to have this opportunity is fabulous.”

“I find it all so fascinating here at the Chubb Classic,” said 17-year-old Isadora Espinosa. “I’m a big people person, so it’s amazing to learn how the tournament works with different people and different jobs. It instills a lot of confidence in someone who still doesn’t know what they want to do…or didn’t think they could do.”

“I really love opportunities like this, because it’s an eye-opener to what I could become,” said 18-year-old Devonde Dorvil, who joined Grace Place in seventh grade. “When I was younger, I thought there were only two career options, doctor or lawyer. But, through Grace Place and coming on field trips like this make me see how I could become a sales operations manager, work as a server or so many other things. I see that if they can do it, I can, too.”

Tuesday’s opportunity may not have changed anyone’s world on site from Grace Place, but the visit to the Chubb Classic may very well have expanded the world for them.

That’s Grace Place – going above and beyond for those below to rise and shine.

“Grace Place is like family for me,” Dorvil said. “I have been through really hard times. I knew Grace Place was always one phone call away to come to my home, talk with me and my parents. They helped us through all our struggles, and I will forever be grateful for the things they have done for me and my family. They did it all with love.”