Chapel Haven Reach

Chapel Haven offers an intensive 24-month Residential Life Skills program that focuses on teaching the individual to negotiate all aspects of independent living. Upon entering the program, each individual is assigned an Interdisciplinary Team (IDT), consisting of representatives from the REACH Program, and family members.

Most students who graduate from our REACH Program remain in New Haven after graduation. That's not surprising. After two years in New Haven, many have made strong social, vocational, and educational connections and see the city as a permanent home.

Graduates are known as Community Members. Chapel Haven currently services more than 170 Community Members, who regularly return to campus for socializing, Continuing Adult Education Classes, and Employment and Supported Living Programs. Nearly all Community Members live in condominiums and apartment complexes not far from campus.

Individualized Attention

Many of our incoming students are away from home for the first time and are both enjoying more freedom and faced with more responsibility than ever before. In order to navigate these challenges successfully, they need strong support and consistent structure. Therefore, each individual is assigned a Coordinating Teacher (CT), who works with the student individually and can evaluate the needs of the whole individual.

The CT works with students five days per week, ensuring that each receives appropriately individualized instruction in all skill areas. The CT is also the lead member of the IDT.

The CT helps the students choose classes and assesses employment goals and also implements Expectations for Graduation, tracking the student’s progress over the course of the two-year program. When the student has demonstrated adequate skills to live independently and successfully in the community, the transition process begins

Life Skills Training

Our apartment-style setting gives the opportunity to learn and practice household maintenance skills such as cooking, cleaning, laundry, menu planning, and grocery shopping and money management. Students also learn to manage finances, including banking and budgeting, as well as self-care, including health, medication administration, hygiene, and safety facilitated by the Coordinating Teacher (CT) and the Life Skills Instructor (LSI).

Chapel Haven is infusing Social Communicative Competency lessons and teachable moments into every aspect of REACH, our founding program. Social Communicative Competency (SCC) is the ability to send and receive messages, to understand social contexts and to employ strategies to keep communications from breaking down. Chapel Haven’s experienced staff have received specialized training on how to teach skills to our students, such as:
* reading nonverbal cues
* actively listening
* developing “theory of mind” to relate to others
* expressing feelings and sequencing events to solve issues
* learning the social rules of the hidden curriculum

Living with Roommates

Living in an apartment with roommates requires that students compromise, solve problems, and advocate for their own needs and desires. These intangible social skills, essential to successful independence, are an important component of the REACH Program.

Exploratory Vocational Experience (EVE) Academy

The Coordinating Teacher (CT) works closely with the Employment Program to best meet the needs of the individual.

Life Skills classes, part of the core curriculum, reinforce and elaborate on life skills lessons learned through the Coordinating Teacher (CT). The students begin the Exploratory Vocational Experience (EVE) Academy in the summer of the second year. The CT serves as a support for the student and an advisor to the Employment staff. At the start of the student’s second year on campus, the CT also helps as she or he moves to supported or competitive employment.

Transitioning Into the Community

Transition into community living is a very important and sometimes difficult step for residents and their families. The transition team -- comprised of the student, his or her family, and Chapel Haven staff -- implements an individualized transition plan choosing either the Bridge or Supported Living Program.

This includes:
assistance with finding a roommate
identifying a desirable living community
securing an apartment or condo
initiating utility services
recommendations regarding the levels of support services as a new community member.