Crossroad Child and Family Services – Fort Wayne

Horrible experience the staff beat me and refused to let me call my parents

My child was forced into this facility by corrupt CPS. You denied her basic hygiene products because her hair is different from your preferred straight, white hair. She is legally in your custody — you are required to… provide these necessities, and you refused. I had to do it myself, but it was your responsibility, not mine. Children in state custody receive funding for their care, yet your facility asks the community for donations while posting my daughter online without my permission. Her face may be blurred, but she is recognizable. I did not authorize this, and she is not old enough to consent herself. I demand these images be taken down immediately from all social media—Facebook, YouTube, everywhere—and I want Miss Bergen Elizabeth to explain why she posted them. Your staff refuse to let me speak to my daughter on the phone, restrict her basic rights, and act like parents have no say. Blocking me on social media after I complained about posting my child is insane. Your facility is abusive to my daughter, my family, and my situation. I have asked repeatedly to stop the harmful behavior. Stop treating me like the bad parent. I will be contacting my lawyer immediately regarding your posting of my daughter without permission.

the higher up don't know what's going half the time, the food sucks here.

I normally do not take the time to leave reviews, but my experience with this particular children’s residential treatment facility has been so profoundly disturbing that I feel compelled to warn other parents,… guardians, and professionals seeking care for vulnerable youth. To put it plainly, the administrative team is grossly neglectful — not merely disorganized, but actively indifferent to the welfare of the residents. The leadership operates with a stunning lack of accountability, often turning a blind eye to serious issues that demand immediate attention. There are documented, repeated incidents where abusive staff members remained employed despite multiple reports and complaints from both children and employees. One staff member, in particular, was accused of verbal, physical and emotional abuse by numerous residents — yet astonishingly, the administration chose inaction every single time. The message this sends to both staff and residents is clear: cruelty is tolerated here, and complaints go nowhere. The turnover rate among staff is abysmally high, which speaks volumes about the internal dysfunction. Employees do not last long in an environment governed by poor leadership, lack of structure, and pervasive disregard for the very people they are supposed to help. The good-hearted staff who genuinely care for the children often leave out of frustration and moral exhaustion, leaving behind individuals who lack both competence and compassion. If you are a parent considering placement for your child, I cannot emphasize this enough — this is not the place you want to send them. The atmosphere is toxic from the top down, and the safety and emotional health of the children are treated as an afterthought. To be entirely candid, I would rather send my child to the Department of Corrections before entrusting them to this facility. At least there, oversight and accountability exist in some structured form. Here, it’s chaos thinly disguised as care. In summary, this facility has become a cautionary tale of what happens when administration values paperwork over people, reputation over responsibility, and silence over safety. It is a shameful reflection on how easily vulnerable children can be failed by those entrusted to protect them. I strongly urge any parent, case worker, or social service agency to look elsewhere — the well-being of your child is far too important to risk here.

if you are thinking about sending your child here please know that it may not be the staff that have a problem it's the kid's for i was a past residence there and i will say that there staff have improved but while i… was there about three girls came in my dorm room and started to punch me in my head rip the covers off of my bed and spit water on my face all because i did'int wake up for school. it took a very long time for staff to get there and for my to emotionally recover from that so if you are a DC worker mom,dad or guardian just please that these people can not guarantee your child's full safety.also stay safe and let god be with you ❤️🙏🙏🌹🌹

They generally just suck

Thanks to this place and the mentors and people who actually helped me, I have a real future. This is about as good as it is going to get when it comes to youth facilities.

Traumatized my autistic daughter. She had very limited verbal ability when she was there. I was told by administration that they would share info with me as we were going through a divorce and my ex had the bad habit of… neglecting to tell me anything. Crossroads never shared info w me about my daughter's progression there. Years later, as her verbal ability improved, she stated she wanted to "burn down crossroad." She HATED Crossroads.I couldn't figure out why exactly, but knew there was some bullying that took place there. Fast forward years later (now in her early 20s) she was able to tell me she was touched inappropriate by another student. Not sure who I hate more. Crossroads or myself for letting her attend there.

My child was just admitted to cross roads 6.12.24 around 11am and when we got there the staff was not the most welcoming by no means and when singing the documents I filled them out and asked for copies and they added… stuff and checked boxes on different papers including the release of information forms to people I didn’t approve and the social worker who done it was laughing and I’m like I’m not okay with that and it needs to be fixed but she never did correct it but she kicked me out of the admin office and said that they was taking my daughter to the unit I refused to leave my daughter until I absolutely had to I went with her to the nurse area which was in the school building which was gross!!!! water damage and mold on the ceiling and smelled like mildew we got her vitals and a Tb test there and my baby was scared and the staff was laughing at her and made fun of her and her speech impediment because she was saying she didn’t want the tv test I had to bribe my baby to get the stuff done and right after they walked me out I went to Walmart right after and spent well over $100 on hygienes ,new clothes ,underwear socks ,hair ties , brush stuffed animals body spray etc so she felt comfortable and was told to take it to the admin office there and they would give it to her my baby called at 8pm and she said they won’t give it to her and they wouldn’t let her keep her belongings that she brought with her from another crises center I will be calling tomorrow morning to see if she got her belongings and if not I will be going back to Fort Wayne with lawyers and fox 59 for how this place is ran and managed because from my little interaction with the staff they don’t care about the child or helping them they just see money. I’d think twice about sending your child here I didn’t have a choice but I now have an attorney and will be getting my daughter out of there ASAP!!!

I was there for like 6 months last year and left as soon as I turned 18. The staff, the ones who worked with the staff we somewhat okay. But the "admin" is horrible, except Ms. Tammy the front desk lady. I love her, she… gave me candy 🩷

A previous foster kiddo went here. This place is completely negligent. My foster kiddo was placed back here and had some of my items. Crossroads didn't give me any update until over a month later after the items were… shipped and the package is gone with things that are irreplaceable. No one is held accountable, no one responds. Kids are being physically and mentally abused there. This place just needs to be shut down. Terrible staff, the kids aren't receiving schooling, staff steak items from the kids. Sad place

Had a bad experience

Stay away from here. The only positive feedback I have on this facility is Rhonda. She went above and beyond for my son and was the only person who I could trust let alone the only person to actually care of the child's… well-being. Staff are rude, abusive to children, they love to cover up their mistakes. complaining is a dead end. My son was there for a year and pushed him out with no success at all if anything it made things worse. Son managed to run from staff into the wood's multiple times. Do not send your child here it is absolutely horrible it should not even be open!

Abuse is rampant from staff and teachers at the academy. Staff encourages kids to fight one another in the live-in units. The place should be shut down and criminal charges brought against them. My child never got any… of the therapies that they said she would receive and came out traumatized.

I was there for around 3 weeks back in the 90s till the state transferd me to gibualt boys school and I was the happiest kids in the world that they did it I wouldn't send my worst enemy to crossroads it was literally… hell there then I went to gibualt and it was night and day how the to places where run even though I was 9 hours away from my house I was glad to be there

As good as a residential child adolescent center can be I suppose. Deal with staff turn over so that it can get confusing when it feels like you're teaching them the rules. There are instances that an adversarial… relationship is created instead of a mutually beneficial relationship for the child among the adults. I have found the lack of addressing certain situations with therapy and keeping information from the parent / guardian not in the best interest of my child, but in the best interest of covering their butt.

I was in this place for 19 hours. I was supposed to go for months but when i got there i was greeted by a prison/psychward style setting. The only place to eat is metal stools bolted into the ground and tables bolted in… as well. The "couch" was several plastic chairs filled with sand to weigh it down. The bedroom layout included a large rubber box with a gymnasium mat on top of it. 4 feet away is a plastic stepstool bolted into rhe ground next to a so called desk witch was the same night stand used in most psychwards. Everything was low and the only way to look out the slanted window sill was by standing on the step stool they tell you to use as a chair. Your clothes are kept in a cubby next to everyone elses stuff similar to a grade school. Their were kids who had been living there for months. This is no environment for a child. Most kids were young and some with disabilities. Kids could freely hit and fight with other kids. At night i saw a 11 year old kid get screamed and cursed at while they destroyed his things then locked the door. When my parents demanded to see my room she imediatly picked me up. The food was horrendous as well and contained little nutritional value. Please do not send your children here. They will suffer and learn nothing. Places like this deserve to be outlawed

This place is the worst! Thank god my grandson is out of there. He was physically assaulted several times by other kids and nothing was done about it, he ran away from there several times and told anyone who would… listen including the police that he was being mistreated there. Most of his belongings were stolen (a few stained up shirts that didn't even belong to him were in the bag though). Horrible place and hopefully someone will look into how this facility is run.