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How Our Program Works

How Our Program Works

Admissions Process


Chapel Haven offers a wide variety of program options for adults who are 18 and older and seeking a happy, independent life!

Our core residential programs are the REACH and Asperger Syndrome Adult Transition (ASAT) programs, based at our flourishing campus in New Haven, CT. We also offer day programming, weekend recreation, social communication therapy, structured day programs and a host of other options, both for our own graduates and for those outside the Chapel Haven community seeking services.

Any family seeking to enroll in one of our services starts first by inquiring through the Chapel Haven Office of Admissions. You can request literature by clicking either link:

To request literature for the REACH program, click here

To request literature about our Asperger Syndrome Adult Transition program, click here

How we workOur admissions process is designed to give the applicant and family a comprehensive view of Chapel Haven’s programs. The Admissions team will ask each inquiring family to provide intake materials, such as recent psychological / neuropsychological and functional adaptive evaluations, IEPS and vocational assessments.

All of these documents can be easily uploaded through our online application process and shared with our admissions team by clicking here. Next, the prospective applicant and interested parties are invited for a campus tour and interview. The REACH and ASAT admissions processes allow the applicant to spend time within the program to help familiarize them with our programming. Once accepted, the family typically will be asked to provide an advance deposit to hold a residential slot. Tuition is billed either twice a year or quarterly, depending on a family’s preference.

Applicants are:

  • 18 years of age and older, with cognitive disabilities/autism spectrum disorders
  • High school graduates or still completing high school credits through their IEPs
  • Emotionally and behaviorally stable
  • motivated to eventually transition into independent and productive lives

Evaluation


Chapel Haven’s Admissions team are seasoned professionals who strive to make applying to our programs as comprehensive and easy as possible. We recognize that taking the next step in transition for your son or daughter can be an anxiety-filled experience. Our goal, when you come to campus, is to help you feel at ease, to meet as many staff, students and community members as possible, and to understand the overarching mission of our agency – empowering people with developmental and social disabilities to live independent and self-determined lives! We offer a range of open houses, workshops and special events that are another great way to learn about Chapel Haven.

“Director

Christy Chandler, Director of Admissions

Our admissions process is designed to give the applicant and family a comprehensive view of Chapel Haven’s programs. Chapel Haven uses an online application system that makes it easy to apply.

Applying families will be asked to attach a completed application and intake materials, such as recent psychological / neuropsychological and functional adaptive evaluations, IEPS and vocational assessments. All of these documents can be easily uploaded through our online application process.

Next, the prospective applicant and interested parties are invited for a campus tour and interview. The REACH and ASAT programs allow the applicant to spend time within the program to help familiarize them with our programming. Once accepted, the family may be asked to provide an advance deposit to hold a residential slot. Tuition is billed either twice a year or quarterly, depending on a family’s preference.

Recommended Program – REACH/ ASAT


By learning more about an applicant through phone conversations with parents, review of testing, campus visits, interviews and, often, talking with valued references, we strive to recommend the best programmatic fit possible. Families can always call the Office of Admissions at (203) 397-1714, ext. 185 or 148 to discuss particulars.

Chapel Haven’s Office of Admissions maintains a busy schedule of open houses, workshops and special events that invite you to join us on-campus and learn more. In addition, the Chapel Haven Family Association cordially invites you to join us for webinars and other special events that give you a first-hand look at our network of families.

 

Paths to Success


At Chapel Haven, all roads lead to independence. Chapel Haven is proud that 85% of students who graduate one of our residential programs choose to stay on and become a Chapel Haven community member. It makes sense! After two years in a structured residential program, our adults make strong social, vocational and educational connections and see the Chapel Haven community as a permanent home. With a capital campaign underway that will provide a new, senior living center, and campus renovations designed to increase our longevity in our host community, families may consider Chapel Haven the choice of a lifetime. With more than 250 adults and counting, you will not find a more robust and accepting community of adults than at Chapel Haven!

Increasingly, Chapel Haven also becomes the choice for applicants outside our program who already possess some level of independent living skills, and who are searching for an adult community to call home. Programmatic choices include the Supported Living, Bridge, Community Life and SAIL programs.

Lifetime Supports


Chapel Haven differs from many transition programs in that we are a community for a lifetime. Adults who go through our residential programs, and those from outside the community who may already have some life skills under their belts, find our Supported Living options to be one of the most appealing aspects of Chapel Haven. Adults who live in our neighborhood with continuing supports are known as Chapel Haven community members and we have more than 150 who have chosen to call Chapel Haven home. They are happily employed or volunteering, have active and satisfying social lives, attend many of Chapel Haven’s chaperoned recreation trips on the weekends, socialize and share meals in our Chapel Haven café, and are pursuing the dream of an independent adult life in our midst. With the planned addition of a senior living facility, Chapel Haven is well on the way to truly embodying our mission: of providing lifelong individualized services that lead to an independent and self-determined life for all.

We are a caring and vibrant community and we hope you will explore how Chapel Haven might be a fit for you!