Hello, my name is Anna Krause and I am 25 years of...

Hello, my name is Anna Krause and I am 25 years of age. I am diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, ptsd, anxiety, and depression. I am originally from Pennsylvania and I moved to New Haven ct for one reason only to attend Chapel Haven which is a school that s suppose to help young adults like me. I enrolled in chapel havens ASAT program which stands for Aspergers spectrum adult transition. When I started the program in August 2016 there was a total of 15 students, but that didn t last long. Slowly my fellow students were leaving because of several different issues; for example they advertise and tell people it s an individualized program for each student, but it s not even close. We were all stuck taking repetitive classes and most of us already knew the content that was discussed. ASAT is a 2 program but every fellow student I was with including me left Chapel haven within 1.5 years left because no one was happy with the services. There was 15 students in the beginning and then one student stayed and everyone else left. That should tell you something.

My time at chapel have was such a ridiculous waste of time and energy. The staff was lazy especially in the evenings when they were suppose help us do our chores. I can state for a fact that several times when a staff member was suppose to help me in my apartment they never showed up and I had to go out searching for the help. Now I definitely did not sign up for this. As a person with autism I still know the difference between good and bad work ethics and this was not my job to go find staff to help me when they were already suppose to be there in the first place. The staff are sometimes not as understanding of people who have autism as well as other disabilities like me. They definitely didn t know how to deal with my ptsd and some other things such as dealing with my anxiety. I went there to find a job and they had 1.5 years to find me a job but they didn t even really try that hard. You would think a program like chapel would have work contracts with companies in the local area. But No!!! That s another huge WOW for chapel haven! WAY to GO! With such a horrible experience with the job. I was even forced to take an Southern Connecticut State University class in the summer which I really didn t want to do at first since I already went to college and graduated BEFORE chapel haven. But again I was forced. (Again not individualized) however I enjoyed the class I even made neurotypical friends. But chapel never liked me or allowed me to hangout with them outside in the community. They were allowed at my Halloween party but chapel haven staff had to supervise. Just ridiculous! They made me and probably others feel we Stuck on a island with no one other than people with disabilities. Which is okay but it doesn t need to be this way 24/7. I know how a special need school should run because I went to The Pathway school which by the way exceeds anything and everything that chapel tried to achieve but failed. So as you can guess I am pretty furious because my family spent $84,000 a year which is why we thought it would be a great program, well laugh out loud because it s definitely not even worth $1,000. So I decided to leave the program early and spend the money on an apartment in the local area. I now get no services from chapel haven but I do get 2 hours of help though another agency. The funny thing is I am making more progress since I left then when I was there. So if you are looking into chapel haven definitely don t take what say as the truth. And keep your ideas open to other programs. Chapel haven might be new campus but that definitely doesn t mean the services are any better. So chapel haven I hope you can improve on your services because people with disabilities could really use a dependable program unlike what you are now!