Camp Akeela

Camp Akeela is a family-run sleepaway camp in Vermont for neurodivergent children and teens — campers with an autism spectrum profile (ASD Level 1), ADD/ADHD or a social-based learning difference such as NLD. No formal diagnosis is required to enrol. The camp sits on 400 wooded acres in Strafford, Vermont, on Miller Pond, about 25 minutes from Hanover, New Hampshire, and runs a traditional camp programme of arts and media, aquatics, land sports and outdoor adventure. Social skills are built into that programme rather than taught in a clinical setting: there are no academic components and no single curriculum, and staff coach each camper through real moments of camp life. Alongside the main sleepaway camp the operator runs Beyond Akeela, a residential college-readiness programme for neurodivergent teens on the Curry College campus in Milton, Massachusetts, and a week-long Family Camp for whole families. Directors Debbie and Eric Sasson share over 45 years of camp experience, master's degrees in education and school counselling and a doctorate in clinical psychology. Vermont-licensed nurses live at camp and dispense all medication.