At Cape Abilities, the season of giving is constant
Makes sense that Santa stopped by; his kindah place
Last Saturday, the Cape Abilities farm and store on Route 6A in Dennis was humming, which is true most of the year but seeing as Santa showed up it was more about Christmas tunes than the usual general hum of activity.
Trees, wreaths, and gifts have mainly replaced tomatoes, lettuce, and flowers. But this remarkable organization does not need December to personify a giving human spirit.
Few understand Cape Abilities’ profound impact, supporting people with disabilities. This is a powerhouse non-profit with a big heart, its mission steeped in practical, community-based compassion.
Just some Cape Abilities numbers:
383 individuals supported in 2022, more like 400 in 2023.
141 job opportunities created in partnership with 48 local businesses, plus job training, and direct employment at the Cape Abilities farm and thrift store.
15 residential homes on Cape Cod housing about 60 people with multiple staff per facility, plus support for independent living in private apartments across the Cape, and adult family care support.
More than 15,000 rides delivered in Cape Abilities vehicles per year to work, home, doctors, and so on.
More than 300 full- and part-time staff.
More than 120 volunteers.
Total revenue in 2022 of $28.2 million, much from state contracts but also from their farm in Dennis, thrift store in Yarmouth, donors and grants.
Are you amazed? I was.
Cape Abilities began in 1968, when parents of people with disabilities gathered at an old fire station in Orleans. Their main focus was the moment when children emerge from educational settings as young adults. There was little support, few programs. What could they do?
A lot. From pre-employment training to internships, vocational opportunities, jobs, volunteering, housing, the mission and budget expanded as headquarters moved to Hyannis.
The Cape Abilities farm is the most visible piece, and serves as a great case study:
Land in Dennis was donated in 2006. The “farm stand,” first a small, shingled, seasonal building, is now a diversified, sophisticated year-round market highlighting locally created items. Large greenhouses grow a variety of produce, hydroponic tomatoes the most popular; “we did 35,000 to 40,000 pounds last year,” reports farm director Tracey Fraser, “and none of them went to waste.” People from Cape Abilities plant, tend, box, assemble, organize, stock, cashier, working shoulder to shoulder with staff hired from the general community. The farm generates roughly 10 percent of Cape Abilities’ revenue.
With 48 Cape businesses as partners, people move into internships and jobs. Bagging groceries at a supermarket has been a visible example, but opportunities include joining the staff at RogersGray Insurance, becoming part of the Hot Chocolate Sparrow’s coffee shop team, working in restaurants. “Wraparound services” is a term social service agencies like to use, but in this case, with transportation, housing, and counseling, the wrap is for real.
Speaking of language, how best to refer to people at Cape Abilities is an important, nuanced question. “Supporting people with disabilities,” whether those disabilities be from birth or later events, is a working term. But Christie Macomber, who handles public communication, says most prefer “creating opportunities for people of all abilities to thrive.” That shifts the focus from “disabled person,” which had been in casual use for a long time.
For Terry Fraser, there’s an even better way; “Let’s just say ‘individuals.’”
Many people helped by Cape Abilities have been with the program 20 years or more, perhaps starting as teenagers. A good number of staff have longevity as well, which can create a strong sense of family in 15 residential homes.
At the farm, everyone is on a first-name basis, and sometimes family can be taken literally; as Fraser swung through the wreaths and gift boxes, she stopped to say hello to her nephew, Andrew Weatherly, at a “pop-up” sales table. Andrew was born with Down Syndrome which has not stopped him from becoming an accomplished artist and poet.
His latest book is “Three Wishes, The Art Beyond a Syndrome, Vol. IV.” The first poem, three couplets set beside an evocative rendering of pink and red tulips on green, is called “Fullness of Color”:
Pallets of color,
praising Mother Nature’s song.
She turns her season of abundance,
her bountiful blooms of lively radiance
Bursting their colors vibrantly,
bearing Autumn joys.
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