Mission, History & Milestones
The Community Development Partnership leads the Lower and Outer Cape in building a diverse year-round community of people who can afford to live, work and thrive here. To accomplish our mission, we promote, develop and manage affordable housing; nurture the launch and growth of small businesses; and facilitate collaboration with business, non-profit, and government partners.
Since its inception in 1992, the CDP has become a leader in developing and delivering innovative programs that foster an economically and environmentally sustainable Lower and Outer Cape Cod community. As a community development corporation, we value economic, racial & ethnic diversity and foster a sense of inclusion and participation of local area residents, business owners, and leaders.
Throughout our thirty-year history, the CDP has continued to adapt to the ever-shifting economic and demographic landscape of our area while maintaining our commitment to strengthening and expanding the building blocks of a vibrant local economy. The CDP is a steward for critical community resources such as stable and affordable rental housing for low-and-moderate income residents, micro-loan funds that help unleash the entrepreneurial spirit in the region, and fishing quota that has preserved our small-scale fishing fleet.
Major Accomplishments include:
- Establishment of the Lower Cape Community Housing Partnership, LCCHP, a multi-pronged initiative designed to provide communities with the tools and knowledge they need to support housing initiatives. The LCCHP is comprised of the Cape Housing Institute, Advocacy Training, and a public education media campaign. In the past 4 years, these efforts have resulted in the consideration of 120 housing-related articles during Town Meetings across the Lower Cape and the approval of nearly $20M in local funding.
- Developing, owning, and managing 100 affordable & community housing rental units.
- Providing business assistance and/or loan capital to over 2,500 locally owned small businesses.
- Educating over 800 potential First Time Home Buyers so they have the resources to make informed decisions in the home buying process.
- Lending over $4.1 million in micro-loans to help start and sustain 237 local small businesses.
- Assisting over 2,800 small business clients across all business programs
- Creating and retaining over 340 jobs since 2014
- Installing 420 solar panels on our properties to harness the power of the sun, generating $50K each year.
- Developing the nationally recognized Cape Cod Fisheries Trust that retains over $10,000,000 in fishing revenues in the local economy each year and provides direct technical assistance support to the local day-boat fishing fleet.
- Repairing and upgrading 469 homes for low-and-moderate income families while putting local contractors to work with contracts totaling over $12 million.
- Establishment of the Orleans Winter Farmer Market
By focusing our efforts on a variety of program initiatives that are synergistically aligned, the organization has been able to develop a deep bench of expertise and skills that can be utilized in flexible ways to fulfill our strategic objectives which include:
- Strengthening business sectors with competitive regional advantage, especially traditional and renewable natural resource-based businesses such as fishing and the arts.
- Increasing the affordability and the availability of safe, stable year-round housing.
- Increasing energy efficiency and local renewable energy generation.