We could not have had a more beautiful night for our 8^th Annual Summer Evening on the Farm! Nearly 200 people gathered on August 24^th to celebrate the resilience, creativity and determination of our neighbors to build a diverse year-round community of people who can afford to live, work and thrive here.

One of the highlights of a Summer Evening on the Farm is our Fund a Need Auction. This year, CDP Board Member and affordable housing resident Marin Reinhardt shared the beautiful story of how living in a safe, affordable year-round home has allowed her husband and three kids to live in this wonderful community and focus on their work and family free of the worry of where they can afford to live.

Some seventy-five participants stepped up and donated $276,000 to support the CDP’s important work. Combined with sponsorships and ticket sales, the event raised $329,000 – fifty thousand dollars more than last year.

My colleagues and I are profoundly grateful for the support of our community and the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of families like Marin’s. Thank you for being part of our success.

In response to the ever-growing housing crisis facing the Lower and Outer Cape, many dedicated people are working to ensure three local housing projects continue to move forward as swiftly as possible. These developments include 95 Lawrence Road in Wellfleet, 3 Jerome Smith Road (the former VFW site) in Provincetown, and at the former Cape Cod 5 Operations Center on West Road in Orleans.

The 46-unit affordable housing (less than 80% AMI [upload pdf of income limits]) development in Wellfleet is a joint project of Preservation of Affordable Housing, based in Boston, and the CDP. The CDP’s housing advocacy staff has been working to educate the public and garner support for the project. This includes extensive outreach to the property’s abutters. CDP staff answer their questions, listen to their concerns and ensure they’re addressed as the project moves forward. According to Mallorey Yannone, the CDP’s Community Organizer, “The outreach is going well. We have gotten a lot of great feedback and many members of the community are coming out to show support.”

Many small businesses on the Lower and Outer Cape are born out of a passion, with the product or service expertise coming first and the business knowledge following. The Community Development Partnership offers a variety of programs to help turn passions into successful businesses. Emily Mandirola and Mariah Fidalgo took their passion for handmade clothes and opened Wild Water Collective in 2021.

Emily and Mariah were both working and living off Cape in 2020. Emily was working in Mexico teaching English as a second language. Mariah was living in New York City working in the television and film industry. When shutdowns for the COVID-19 pandemic began in March of 2020, both packed up and relocated to the Cape, where they each had family. “We thought it was just going to be two weeks, but here we are two years later,” says co-owner Mariah.

Dan Wolf has always had a deep love for Cape Cod. It is the place his family visited during his childhood, where he would start a business, and the district he would represent in state government from 2011 through 2016.

After graduating from Wesleyan University, Dan worked as a community and union organizer around Boston. Dan returned to Cape Cod to manage the Chatham Municipal Airport, and in 1989, he started Cape Air with one route between Boston and Provincetown. Dan served as the company’s CEO through 2021 and remains involved with the partially employee-owned company as Board Chairman.

Dan continues to stay engaged with many different organizations and his community, “Most of my involvement outside of Cape Air has been focused on making the Cape a great place to live for anyone who chooses to do so,” says Dan. Dan currently serves on the board of the Center for Coastal Studies, Cape Cod 5, and the Alliance for Business Leadership, among others. 

We are happy to announce that our generous donors raised over $329,000 to support our programs.

Last month, US Senator Elizabeth Warren visited the Homeless Prevention Council (HPC) in Orleans. With Senator Warren, CDP President and CEO Jay Coburn, HPC CEO Hadley Luddy, and staff from both organizations discussed the housing crisis on the Cape. State Senator Julian Cyr and Rep. Sarah Peake participated in the discussion as well. Senator Warren was interested in the Lower Cape Housing and ADU Resource Center launched by the CDP and HPC with $1 million in state ARPA funds secured by Rep. Peake.

 They also spoke about other ways the federal government could help including other possible funding sources.

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