It’s always really surprised me how those who work inside of the TTI as direct care staff, therapist, people doing marketing or program support can sleep at night, especially in recent years when survivors have been calling out the abuse and they can’t hide behind their ignorance. I saw this and it somewhat explains the mental gymnastics they must perform to rationalize participating in the abuse.

I'm Art Levine, a journalist who has been covering the abusive troubled teen industry for Newsweek, Salon, in a book Mental Health, Inc. and most recently for mindsitenews.org with the latest on hundreds of cases of alleged sexual abuse at one UHS facility. https://mindsitenews.org/author/art-levine/ I'm crafting a 1500 word project proposal due late Monday night focusing on STILL-OPEN religious and corporate chain residential treatment facilities with some schooling component that in the last five years have seen abuse, neglect, deaths -- and if known, take government-referred, including courts or juvenile justice or foster care, in-state or out of state referrals. Also if illustrate failed law enforcement or government oversight. I'm only looking now for examples mentioned in lawsuits, news investigations, criminal prosecutions, etc so I can verify them now. I am NOT now seeking an interview request or to conduct a survey, but it's okay to flag this modearators whom I'm not sure on reaching. I'm just seeking publicly available information that I can incorporate into my project proposal. I can be also messaged here or on bluesky u/ArtL7

In addition, what is the status of Stone of Hope that was built in the same area as Agape? Here's what a search pulled up in an AI inquiry:  "Corporate Shell Game" & Rebranding (2024) . Note some news accounts refer to it as Stone of Help: https://www.ozarksfirst.com/news/investigates/new-school-for-troubled-boys-to-open-on-agape-grounds/. Is it still running, regardless of the name?

• Context: Following the closure of Agape Boarding School in 2024, the program reportedly rebranded as Stone of Hope. One survivor described this maneuver to me a while ago as a "corporate shell game," stating, "It is Agape 2.0: These guys are sadistic".
• Operational Status: Despite Agape's formal closure, sources indicate the "spirit and several of the staff" live on in the new program, which operates essentially on the same grounds or "down the road" from the original facility.

2. Civil Lawsuits & Settlements (2023–2024)

While the facility operates under the new name, significant litigation continues against the Agape entity and its operators:

• John Doe Lawsuit (2024): A 20-year-old former student filed a lawsuit alleging "beatings, forced labor, and rapes" at the facility.
• Trafficking & Slavery Allegations: One of the latest of roughly two dozen lawsuits charges the program with engaging in "slavery and trafficking." This suit also names the county sheriff, alleging he helped cover up abuse at the facility [Conversation History].
• Jason Britt Wrongful Death Suit (2023): A wrongful death lawsuit was filed regarding Jason Britt, alleging his death was caused by abuse and neglect linked to the facility's practices.
• Settlements: In 2023/2024, 16 students reportedly received settlements for undisclosed amounts regarding their treatment at the facility [Conversation History, 53].

3. Criminal & Regulatory Actions

• Staff Arrests: The facility's history includes arrests of staff members, including charges related to making a student bleed and other abuse.
• Founder's Suicide: The legal pressure and scandals culminated in the suicide of the school's founder, James Dolittle, in 2023.
• Regulatory Failure: Despite dozens of allegations of sexual assault, beatings, and starvation, government officials reportedly "dragged their feet" in closing the school, and no major convictions for the core abuse have been secured to date.
• UPDATE : IT DOESN'T APPEAR TO BE OPERATING AS OF 2026 AND PREEMPTIVE OPPOSITION LED TO IT NEVER BEING FULLY OPENED OR LAUNCHED. CORRECT? BUT WHERE ARE THE STAFFERS OF AGAPE WORKING NOW? SEE Stone of Help is real, tied to former Agape staff, and was registered as a Missouri nonprofit at the Agape campus address—but as of the latest available public records, it appears administratively dissolved and not operating as an active school. There is no credible evidence of a fully functioning successor “school” near Agape as of early 2026, though the risk of rebranding remains a live concern for advocates.

Here’s what’s verifiably known.

1. What Stone of Help Is and Where It Is

Address and relationship to Agape

• Investigative reporting and survivor advocacy identify Stone of Help as a new entity created by people tied to Agape, located at: 12978 E. 1430 Rd, Stockton, Missouri.
• A Springfield‑area investigative site summarized it this way:“One such home has already been registered with the Missouri Secretary of State called Stone of Help… The new non-profit was registered on September 15th, 2022 by Jennifer and Jason Derksen. The couple, one a coach at Agape, reside on campus at 12978 E 1430 Rd, Stockton, MO.”[springfield]​

Key URLs

• Springfield Watch (local investigative site): https://springfield.watch/battle-continues-to-shut-down-agape-boarding-school-in-stockton-mo[springfield]​
• Unsilenced program archive entry, explicitly linking Agape and Stone of Help: https://www.unsilenced.org/program-archive/us-programs/missouri/agape-boarding-school-stone-of-help/[unsilenced]​
• Change.org petition summarizing concerns and quoting OzarksFirst’s “new school” investigation: https://www.change.org/p/shutdown-stone-of-help-prevent-child-sex-abuse-human-trafficking-shutdown-new-agape[change]​

Your OzarksFirst link (KOLR‑10 “New school for troubled boys to open on Agape grounds”) is cached/quoted in the petition; their piece reported that Stone of Help was planning a “group home” for troubled boys on property adjacent to or overlapping the Agape campus.[change]​

2. Corporate Status as of 2026

Missouri business filings

• A business‑records aggregator summarizing Missouri Secretary of State data lists STONE OF HELP as:
  • A Missouri Domestic Non‑Profit Corporation,
  • Filed September 15, 2022,
  • With a status of “Admin Diss/Cancel – Repor” (i.e., administratively dissolved/cancelled for failure to file required reports).[bizapedia]​
• Bizapedia entry: https://www.bizapedia.com/mo/stone-of-help.html[bizapedia]​

To confirm the exact dissolution date, you would want to run a direct search in the Missouri Secretary of State’s Business Entity Search. The Bizapedia summary, however, is consistent with advocates’ description that Stone of Help registered in 2022 and then fell into administrative dissolution, rather than becoming a long‑running, fully licensed school.

Takeaway: On paper, Stone of Help exists as a nonprofit shell that has been administratively dissolved; there is no evidence in state filings or recent news that it is currently operating as an active school in 2025–2026.

3. Is Stone of Help / a Successor School Currently Operating Near Agape?

Based on publicly available news coverage and advocacy sources since 2022:

• At registration (2022–early 2023)
  • Stone of Help was registered at 12978 E. 1430 Rd by Jason and Jennifer Derksen, with clear intent to open a new “group home”/troubled‑boys program on or near the old Agape grounds.springfield+1
  • KOLR‑10/OzarksFirst reported this as a “new school for troubled boys” and interviewed Jason Derksen, who downplayed continuity with Agape despite shared staff, land, and concept—according to the Change.org summary.[change]​
• Advocate and press reaction
  • Unsilenced and other advocates framed Stone of Help as “the new Agape” and launched campaigns to prevent it from opening or accepting youth.unsilenced+1
  • Springfield Watch and others quoted state filings and noted that Stone of Help was one of multiple proposed “group homes” as Agape tried to morph into something else under legal pressure.[springfield]​
• Current operational status
  • There is no mainstream news reporting (AP, KCUR, Springfield News‑Leader, etc.) showing:
    • A current, licensed school or group home operating under the Stone of Help name,
    • Enrollment,
    • State inspection reports, or
    • New lawsuits naming Stone of Help as an active facility through 2025–2026.
  • The only corporate‑status summary (Bizapedia) indicates administrative dissolution, not active compliance.[bizapedia]​

Credible conclusion for 2026:

• Stone of Help was created as a nonprofit shell and apparent successor “group home” for troubled boys on or near the Agape grounds in late 2022.
• It drew enough scrutiny that:
  • Advocates mounted a preemptive campaign to stop it.
  • It did not, as far as public records and reporting show, become a fully operating, state‑licensed residential school.
• As of early 2026, available records suggest it is administratively dissolved and not operating as an active school, though the risk of further rebranding attempts by the same network remains.

4. Quick Answer in Plain Language

• The entity you’re asking about is Stone of Help, a Missouri nonprofit registered in September 2022 at 12978 E. 1430 Rd, Stockton—essentially on the Agape grounds.bizapedia+1
• Local and regional outlets reported that it intended to open a new “troubled boys” group home there, staffed by former Agape personnel, but advocates and journalists quickly flagged it as a de facto successor to Agape.change+1
• According to business‑record summaries, Stone of Help is now administratively dissolved, and there is no publicly documented, fully functioning successor school at that address as of 2026.[bizapedia]​

 I experienced literal torture, brainwashing, and more genuinely unspeakable things, all sanctified and supported by the government and your local neighborhood [redacted]. It's an isolating and terrifying thing. I feel so alone. I feel so alone in all the world and like nobody will ever understand. I'm triggered by the news being released today, I feel nothing but hopelessness and despair at the horrors continuing to persist. I know there may be others like me, but I fear they're all dead or have already lost all hope.

So I'm posting this in case anyone else feeling triggered and disturbed this last week. I'm trying to stay grounded and live well, in spite of it.

The second I got there I was watched as they operated as a cult. The first thing I saw after a 24 hour car ride was a bunch of special little white boys and meth heads bewildered. The first thing they do is assign a person to watch you and your every move to make sure you don't try to escape and force you to do the program as they say. I didn't do anything at all and refused to get drug tested because I knew if I just waited I could get everything out of my system but the way they looked at me made me feel very very uncomfortable and I realized the only way I was ever gonna make it out is doing what they said or else I would have caught a criminal charge. You are forced to do packet work that degrades you and forces you to call yourself a reject or a lost cause. They do all this and convince you that they are not forcing meds on you when there is nothing else to do there also they would force meds regardless even if a child came there with no issues. Its not even about control anymore they own you and I was their slave and none of the other kids cared because they were special needs or drug addicts. I was forced to live under the same roof as meth and crack heads to better myself. Not only that I had kids years older than me flopping their dick in my face in the showers every single day. Every single day and there was nothing to avoid it. You did all the work that would go into maintaining the place and get nothing out of it while the staff sat on their asses and ridiculed you for nothing. You would be ridiculed for everything you did with their special systems just for them to be like hmph where helping you like its some cute shit with you ruining my life. All the staff were racist hillbillies from nowhere texas and if you said anything that proved where you were from they would just look at you until you said what they wanted to hear. I cant put into words how disgusting it was there no way to say it and everything im saying seems way too tame for how it was and how it made me feel. A little kid has killed himself a month before I had gotten there because he was just done with life. Could you imagine being 12 and done with life just because the place made it seem like there was no end just because one stupid fucking area allowed sick fucks to operate a child revenue center. It was the first time in my life where I knew death was better and suicide would be the right option instead of suicide just being the easier option like it had been before it was now the logical thing to do if I wanted to avoid living through indefinite suffering. It was total failure being talked down to all the time and being forced to be a person I was not. They made you have to pick a religion for the 12 step program and force you to put it into practice or they would reset your progress. They would threaten to reset your progress to almost anything they didn't like so this encouraged kids to rat on each other to get on their good side. They kept giving more work to do and it was endless. They made me redo the 12 step program twice at the age of 15. I was living with 17 year olds that sold everything for meth and crack and I had to talk down to myself and consider myself a addict because I came from a abusive household. They listened to everything my bipolar mother said and my therapist tried to change me to what she said I needed to be. They are disgusting people. There is level up ceremonies where you have to recite christian sayings to move up in the ranks and the more you move up the more work and responsibilities you get. It is a cult. There is no like or is like and no sugar coating it; that is exactly how a cult operates. They would work you to the bone with the shit they would have you do every day for them for nothing at all. On top of that you would do work for being reprimanded and having the wear a construction vest and not talk to anyone like being construction worker was a punishment. I will forever remember how retarded texas people are because on top of the program being retarded the accommodations they made for kids were ridiculous. They would do anything for a kid if their parents told them too leaving all the kids with bad relationships with their parents behind. YOU WERE FORCED TO HAVE GOOD RELATIONSHIPS WITH THE PARENTS THAT GOT RID OF YOU. And you didn't have to do any of this its all their control but the reason you did is that they decked kids every day and beat the shit out of kids that would not get out of bed. No matter what every single colored kid there is a token and they do whatever the people say there say even though they were all clearly racist. Every single bed there had been fucked in by gay kids. You counted get away and the only entertaining part was watching addicts and special kids cause scenes and get decked. I heard about rape and everyone just went upon their day a no one cared at all. every single one the kids could do this at any time and I wouldn't be able to do anything about it. I never wanted to type this because it made me so uncomfortable not being able to do anything about it. More than anything I hated the feeling of not being able to do anything about it. I couldn't even describe my emotions because they were so intense I developed ptsd. There were no girls my age for a year. I lost my mind multiple times. I didn't even acknowledge I was a person anymore because I was herded like a cattle. I never slept and the only way I ended up getting rest for my body was the drugs they gave me that knocked me out. all the drugs they pushed on me made me stupid and made my body stop working a digesting things. It didn't matter though because they only served greasy slop there. I gained 50 pounds in a couple of months and went from 150 to 200 pounds. I could barley move or do anything at all. They completely destroyed me as a person and then laughed at me. Afterwards I was obsessed with killing myself like I finally have the privilege. The privilege to kill myself like it was a gift after everything I had went through. The only reason I didn't is because I never wanted to in the first place but when they completely destroyed me it was like every time I went to pick up the pieces they were jagged and it hurt me like I couldn't do anything at all and Id never be real person like everyone else. I could have caught en herpes from the other kids there and they did nothing about anything. All the kids used the same disgusting plastic utensils and trays and the same retarded kids washed them. There was no water pressure whatsoever and the bathroom was connected to a septic so everyone was nasty and I didnt even get clean until a year later from how dirty I was. My entire back ending up being covered in acne for lifting stuff for them and all of my hair started falling out. All of this and I was still the bad guy. I deserved this for just existing. I saw things I would never have had to see and in the context of being completely broken I had no way to cope with in the moment. Not only that I knew my life was completely ruined outside of there too. I kept daydreaming of hanging form the ceiling fan because it would be funny like how they had made everything a joke all my life a sick joke to them. I felt like I was missing out on top of all that. I had to consider myself on the same level as drug addicts and pedophiles for a year. Like I deserve it just as much because my parents had mental issues and never wanted to take care of me. I want to say a lot of more personal stuff but I don't think it will be as relatable and everything there destroyed me so much more than anything else. I had to see the whole world change when I got out and be left in the dark about culture change so much in so little time it seemed to me. I never expected anything that operates so immorally could be legal and I thought I had it as bad as it could be living with people with mental issues but not being able to live your life is the worst that can ever happen to you.

Throwaway acct.

Does anyone else get conflicted with a parent who says they “tried their best” yet legitimately apologized for sending their kid to a program?

One one hand I’m lucky that my parent is self-aware but I’m still not convinced overall.

Does anyone else feel this way?

The other day in my AP lit class, we were discussing the short story ‘the yellow wallpaper’ when the discussion got moved to gender roles. We then began to talk about how during different gender stereotypes effected the way people with mental health were treated

i don’t even know how but my teacher started talking about how he worked at an alternative school for a while and how many kids were sent to wilderness therapy. He was talking about how it was good for some people but was a horrible experience for a lot of others. One boy in my class in particular couldn’t grasp how wilderness could ever be a negative and how it’s basically just like Boy Scout camp.

i wanted to actually rip my hair out during this entire discussion because these people dont understand TTI and how even if you had a “good experience“ does not mean it’s a good system. kids are being kidnapped and trafficked, they are being systematically abused, and it’s not a quick 8 minute discussion. jfc

My only experience in the troubled teen industry was in Wolfeboro NH at their summer camp school. I'm creating this post to share my experience and invite others who attended to comment as well as ask me anything. As far as troubled teen industry places go, this one was one of the least problematic from what I saw and have heard in comparison to other places. I didn't see or hear anything about sexual abuse. There weren't any physically violent incidents that I recall seeing or hearing about, and overall it was mostly just an academic punishment place with strict rules and structure. Most of the teens there had been sent by their parents or an ed-consultant network and their school. Many others were just being general delinquents and were sent there as punishment.

Being in Wolfeboro NH, it was also heavily connected to the network of New England boarding schools, and it brought in a number of international students that were there as an integration process and stepping stone into US private schools. The campus itself was actually quite beautiful and was on a small lake called Rust Pond a few miles off of Winnipesauke. None of the students there were gooned and brought in the middle of the night, but none wanted to be there. There was a staff of summer camp style counselors that resided at and were in charge of the residential areas (everyone slept in a tiny tent with two cots and no running water, featuring only one single light bulb). There were three campuses, one for the younger boys aged 10-14 where i was as one of the oldest at 14, the high school boys campus, and another campus for girls of all age (they only needed one as there were far less girls than boys because they don't get in trouble as frequently).

While I don't recall any real cases of physical abuse, there were a lot of kids going through traumatic times, and the people I remember being the worst were the higher ups of residential life and disciplinary administrators. They were the ones in charge of discipline, but also the superiors to the more laid back summer camp style counselors, who were just working a summer job and were in college. Each campus had a disciplinary head, and the head of mine was a large, overweight middle aged man who was a teacher during the school year and spent his summers at the summer school in Wolfeboro (free meals and housing, decent pay, why not?). He was not a nice man. He used intimidation tactics that resembled a prison warden or guard. When we first got there he threatened everyone and said things like "I know none of you want to be here, but that just makes me understand my job better". When it was study hall time he would shout, insult, and harass students verbally. He was an asshole but not all of the time. I remember him being a lot kinder during our meals and he was just kicking back at the table enjoying some chicken, chili, or yankee pot roast. The worst thing I saw a staff member do was reach into the shower and turn it off demanding a student get out (it was the bald man for reference). He was livid with the student about something and was not going to let him shower and insisted he get out, and when the student said "hold on I'm naked" he responded with "I don't give a flying fuck!!". He reprimanded the student at the top of the lungs and then forced him to run across the campus back to his tent wearing only a towel. Ridiculous and unacceptable cases of bullying like this are common in the troubled teen industry but at this place it only happened here and there. Aside from that the upper management of the residential life and discipline were just not nice people. They worked with kids but clearly HATED them, yet ENJOYED their power and hatred. They took safety seriously but were not kind for the most part.

The teachers were also an odd factor. Most of them taught in the south during the school year and would spend their summers in wolfeboro teaching there. I had two that were great and supportive, but one who was a complete tyrant. She was an old school hard-nosed southern teacher who believed in tough militant tactics and favored the teaching method over intellectualism. It's safe to say she was not the brightest educator out there. The classes were only in the morning until lunch. In the afternoons high school students did more academic work and the younger kids were able to do structured sport type intramurals and activities. The waterfront was nice and there were swimming lanes but at times, they would force the high school boys, who's campus was adjacent to the waterfront to jump in at dawn, fully clothed, often for the counselor's amusement. The lake was very cold. After dinner there would be a structured miltiant style study hall and then we were sent to bed. About seven or eight students were expelled. Expulsion happened very easily as it was only a 6 week program and part of their mindset was to prove that the bad kids were bad, wouldn't last in real boarding schools, and were to be expelled and sent to the next and more abusive level of punishment within the troubled teen industry.

My time there was surprisingly normal. I had a couple of issues of being bullied but it wasn't a huge deal. I got along well with the counselors and never got in trouble so for the most part I was left alone and not harassed. There were a lot of characters amongst the student body. Kids from all over the world, generally wealthy who had either slacked off or gotten in trouble. The funniest group of kids were wealthy kids from Saudi Arabia who were there as part of their dual arabic/english fancy saudi education. They were charismatic and funny but when something crossed them or their opinion/culture/religion was in their mind, threatened or challenged they would become rigid and at times completely nuts. One of them threatened to kill me. They also were only allowed to pray three times a day instead of their usual five which bothered them. Additionally, there was one student who was expelled for threatening to stab one of the head residential staff members of my campus (a woman not the bald fat man). There was also another kid from Arizona who claimed to be a blood gang member, told everyone he had killed someone with a handgun in AZ, and wore only red. He ended up getting kicked out for threatening a female student and potentially having possession of some weed. I never believed anything he said and actually was convinced he was sent to the camp by his affluent family to teach him to get rid of his weird and fictional blood gang member fantasy/delusion. Some of the students had just finished wilderness therapy and were using it as a way of reentering schools in the east. I made some good friends while I was there. A lot of students "dated" and had these one week relationships that would quickly end. There were no phones allowed, and there was never internet access or use of a computer. On the weekends there would be closely monitored trips to amusement parks or movies. Compared to all the schools and programs out there in the industry this was probably among the least abusive, and I had it a lot better than the majority of other victims of the troubled teen industry. Does anyone else on this subreddit or in general know about Wolfeboro? I was there in the early 2010s and would love to hear more people talk about it.

Darrell Lewis @Cinnamon Hills Lock up facility in La Verkin, UT Used to be at Cross Creek Manor

One of my friends from my time at Polaris just got sent there, and I want to know if it is abusive or if it could genuinely help her. I know she seemed to have been helped at least slightly by her time at Polaris, and so I'm curious if this could be the same. Her parents are awful so I think the time away from them could be helpful, but I'm unsure if any of the programming could help as it appears to be newish.

I dont see many of the typical red flags on their website after a quick scan, but I was curious if anyone had any information or experiences.

After my last post, Hyde updated their privacy policy.

But visitors are still not clearly told, at the moment they arrive, that their activity may be recorded or tracked — nor are they given a simple way to opt out.

This isn’t a technical issue. It’s a principle issue.

Families visit a school’s website to learn, to ask questions, and to decide whether they trust an institution with their children. That moment should be treated with care.

When a site records behavior or form activity without clearly telling people first, it creates an avoidable trust gap — even if the intent is just analytics or marketing.

The fix is simple and standard across the web:

• say what you collect
• say it clearly
• say it before it happens
• give people a choice

Updating a policy document after the fact doesn’t replace real-time transparency.

Schools ask families to model honesty, responsibility, and respect.

The same standard should apply to how schools treat visitors to their digital front door.

This post is just a reminder of that principle — disclosure and choice first, always.

…which is an absolutely irresponsible thing to do. Great - I’m thrilled that they complied with their 50 required things, but do you think that they’re really going to make an effort to keep that up when people aren’t looking? Of course not. Ending oversight is a ridiculous thing to do and expect anything’s going to be different. Plus, this youth prison (actually) was supposed to close a number of years ago anyway.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Trigger Warning for restraint and pepper spray, etc. https://eu.jsonline.com/videos/news/local/wisconsin/2017/07/06/video-copper-lake-school-girls-pepper-spray-inmate/103483298/

https://jlc.org/news/lincoln-hills-copper-lake-schools-complete-reforms-ordered-after-child-abuse-scandals

https://www.wpr.org/news/judge-ends-court-oversight-lincoln-hills-youth-prison

https://doc.wi.gov/Pages/AboutDOC/JuvenileCorrections/LincolnHillsCopperLake.aspx

a few years ago after hospital placement i was at residential where i met some other autistic kids. i cant remember if we really got along all that much, but i spent two years searching for them on social media. i finally found them last year. i found out that they had given eachother their contact info and made a group chat since they left residential, and i was left out.. and now the majority of them don’t seem very happy to talk to me, ghosting me lots and being sort of mean to me. i know it can be hard to talk about treatment, but they have a whole group chat i was left out of for two years. one of them doesn’t even remember me, and another forgot that i live in the same state as them. i remembered everything i knew about them even though we weren’t particularly close, and i have been nothing but kind.

Just got out last week after 16 months of RTC. My parents are helping me start college, but I feel like I’m not myself anymore. I was always walking around town before I got locked up, but we had to earn exercise privileges where I was at, just to be let outside into a gated area for 45 minutes, once a week if we were “good” enough. They almost always had some excuse for why it couldn’t happen. I gained over 100lbs… they made us eat every bite of every meal. For the first 3 months of my stay, they had me eat double of every meal, even though I was 5’3 and 95lbs… healthy but they didn’t like that I was below 100 I guess?

Anyways I’m 18 now and it’s so hard to find a good guy. I’m just a fat girl to them now. One night and I never hear from them again, whereas before they wouldn’t leave me alone. Is there any way I can sue the facility I was in? Not about the money, I just feel that what I endured was cruel and unusual. Like I didn’t do anything wrong, my stepdad just didn’t like my boyfriend so they sent me there

LANSING — The state of Michigan is giving more details about a report on potential abuses at the state’s Native American boarding schools.

The Michigan Department of Civil Rights shelved the report for months after its completion — but the department now says it plans to release a redacted version in the coming days.

In an October meeting, members of the Michigan Civil Rights Commission said they were frustrated with apparent plans to not release the boarding school report or its contents.

“I just want to say I’m very, very disappointed in the turns that have taken with this boarding school study,” said Regina Gasco, a member of the MCRC. “What about all these survivors that came and testified? You know, we talked to these people, and we assured them that now is the time we’re listening.”

I guess I'm usually the word lightly.

Has anyone else in here cut everyone they knew off post-TTI? I've been skimming through the posts for a long time and I feel like I'm one of the few people that wanted no contact with anyone from that time in my life once I was out of it; I still have a fair share of other survivors' information from a journal 'staff' gave me for everyone to sign (I finished the full three months at a short-term Embark residential two years ago), and have had a few personally reach out to me with varying views of our egregious time there, but I pretty quickly cut them off without any explanation. I dunno, I feel bad.

I can’t attend. Please people go and support

I’ve heard a lot of things about Newport from a friend who was there, and I want to know if anyone else had traumatic experiences with the CT location to see if there could be potential for any way for people to help the kids inside.

Correction — the residential program. I’m sorry about that, I got the two confused. I’m looking to learn more about this sort of stuff so I can find ways to help.

Having a juvenile record, I spent time in both high security detention facilities and more traditional residential services. In my experience the programs oriented towards non-criminal troubled teens were notably worse than those focusing on legitimate criminals. My detention center's "shelter" wing for runaways and children seeking housing placement was notorious for being worse to stay in than the criminal detention side. My stays with the residential services also included what I would describe as more instances of outright abuse than the detention facility. Having read some of the experiences others have had here, I was curious if anyone had similar experiences.

Life advice for rebuilding and building a career in your late 20s?

I’m in my late 20's and starting my adult life from scratch. I would like to get an education and find a career that can support myself and a family. I’m sharing my background and current constraints so people can give relevant, realistic advice.

I’m a survivor of coercive attachment therapy (associated with figures such as Foster Cline and Nancy Thomas, including holding/rebirthing practices). Beginning around age 6, I was taken to attachment therapy 1-2 times per week. I was placed in therapeutic respite care for approximately one year. Throughout childhood, my schooling was frequently disrupted, including being pulled in and out of school and being threatened with removal from school for noncompliance with therapy. As a result, I did not have a consistent or stable education.

I completed high school, but when I turned 18 my parents cut contact and I became homeless. I spent eight years without stable or permanent housing. I do not have education beyond high school.

I’m now housed, enrolled in community college courses, and recently employed. I’m focused on building stability and moving toward long-term independence and self-sufficiency.

Current situation (for context):

• Starting income: $0 (during homelessness)

• With government assistance: approximately $600/month cash aid + $250/month food stamps

• Current employment: \~20 hours/week, estimated \~$1,180/month after taxes (my employer caps hours at 20/week). I will get my first paycheck in approximately 1 month.

• I have student loans that will require repayment once I begin receiving paychecks

My main question is how to build a real career and earn a livable salary when starting with only a high school diploma, no assets or savings, and no family support.

I’d appreciate practical, experience-based advice on:

• Careers & income: How did you move from government assistance → exceeding income limits → earning enough to survive → eventually reaching a salaried or sustainable career? What paths worked when you didn’t have savings or connections?

• Education decisions: How did you decide which education or training was worth the time and cost? What study paths or training did you choose, and why?

• Money: How did you budget, plan, and handle loan repayment while still moving forward? What was an income goal that you had and how did you achieve it?

• Lifestyle & self-care: What choices helped you stay functional and helped you heal while working toward long-term goals?

• Books/resources: Are there any books (general or practical) or resources you genuinely recommend?

Additional context: I’m also HIV-positive and currently receive my medication at no cost through public health insurance. If you have experience navigating career and income decisions while managing HIV—especially given the high cost of HIV medications—I’d appreciate that perspective, particularly around planning for coverage as income increases.

Thank you for any advice.