With Federal Grant, Cape Cod Village Seeks To Further Its Inclusive Mission

ORLEANS – As parents of a child with autism, Lauren Jones and her late husband, Bob, met with a group of other parents of autistic children in 2011 and raised the question on everyone else’s mind.

 “What is going to happen to our kids when we are no longer here?” 

 Nine years and more than $7 million in fundraising later, Lauren and Bob opened Cape Cod Village in 2020. Located off Namequoit Road near the Cape Cod Rail Trail, the development offers housing for 16 adults with autism and developmental disabilities. 

 “The residents who live here tend to be much more disabled, more profoundly autistic,” Lauren Jones said. “A lot of them are non-verbal. They might use sign language or use their iPads.”

Currently there are 12 residents across the campus’ four homes, ranging in age from 25 to middle age. One of them is Lauren and Bob’s son, Alexander, now 35, who Lauren called the couple’s “inspiration” behind making the inclusive community a reality.

But beyond providing housing for people with Autism across the Cape and beyond, the nonprofit has increased its focus in recent years on another mission: to help provide more outlets for socialization for people with developmental disabilities, and to better integrate them into the broader community. 

In 2022, the village opened The Center for Developmental Disabilities, more commonly known as The Center at Cape Cod Village. The building offers meeting and programming space for residents and people throughout the region with developmental disabilities to engage, interact and work on their social communication and relationships. 

Deirdre Sullivan started as the village’s program director in December. She estimated that there are eight or nine different adaptive programs held at the center weekly. Those include eco-art, martial arts, drumming and yoga, as well as a monthly Friday night dance.

“It’s inclusive,” she said. “It centers upon the residents and then we invite community partner participants and other members of the community.” 

Community partners include organizations such as Moving Forward in Barnstable, Transitions Centers in Yarmouth and the Latham Centers. The village also offers internships to students at Nauset Regional High School.

Sullivan said about 200 people participate in center programming a month, with participants spanning the Cape from Bourne to Provincetown. Some people even come over the bridge from Plymouth.

“We decided we didn’t just want to serve residents living in Cape Cod Village,” Lauren said. “We wanted to develop programs for people who lived in the larger community. If you’re a Down Syndrome kid living with your parents in Truro, we want to find you and bring you into the center.”

For many people with autism and developmental disabilities, there can be a “gap” in services after they finish high school, Sullivan said. Many live at home with their families, but she said the opportunities for regular socialization often aren’t as readily available to them as they are for others in the community.

“The people with developmental disabilities on Cape Cod, the research has been showing that the rates of isolation, depression and loneliness are really high,” she said. “So we’re trying to offer solutions.”

Richard Hoffmann, the village’s executive director, said the gap in services that exists for people with autism and developmental disabilities comes down in part to funding. The village does not charge participants anything for its center programs, which are carried through with the help of community partners and volunteers, and relies on donations and grants to sustain its offerings. But he said for many, the programs serve as a gateway to helping them better develop their social skills.

“One of the biggest things we work on with folks is building those social relationships, but it’s through all those activities,” he said. “They might be drumming and not even know that they’re [making] eye contact with someone new. They might exchange a phone number and all those kinds of things.”

Now thanks to a new grant secured through the office of Rep. William Keating, D-Bourne, the village is working to expand its program offerings by way of a new adaptive and accessible fitness course. Hoffmann envisions the proposed course, which will be situated in open space behind the existing center and homes, will include between seven and 10 “exercise oriented” offerings, as well as a space for music and a sensory station, complete with a visual communication board.

The $434,000 in community project funding was secured by Keating through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Hoffmann said the village applied for the grant in March 2023 and received notice of the award in March of this year.

Prior to applying for the grant, the village conducted a needs assessment in partnership with the Nauset, Monomoy, Dennis-Yarmouth and Barnstable school districts to identify what needs the nonprofit should prioritize in future programming. The two biggest needs identified included programming for physical exercise and relationship building.

“Some of what we’ve learned from feedback and the needs assessment is people want programs that are outdoors,” Sullivan said. “They want physical, they want movement. They want some of these more unique offerings.”

The village has begun working with a local architect on a conceptual design for the outdoor space, Hoffmann said. The hope is to break ground on the project this winter in anticipation for a summer 2025 opening, he said.

For Jones, the evolution of the village and the center is a way of carrying on her husband’s dedication to community service, especially in the realm of autism awareness and advocacy. Bob, who was the first executive director of Lower Cape Human Services and later co-operated his own practice, Orleans Psychotherapy Associates, alongside Lauren for more than three decades, died unexpectedly from a heart attack on July 2 at the age of 80.

“He would have been right here talking with us,” she said.

Cape Cod Village is dedicated to serving people with autism and developmental disabilities from throughout the region. But the nonprofit is always looking for volunteers, said Deirdre Sullivan, the village’s program director.

Volunteers are needed to help administer programs through the village’s Center for Developmental Disabilities, Sullivan said.

“They’d have a skill, whether it be in the arts or adaptive fitness or drumming,” she said. “We have all sorts of stuff. And they’d have to have an interest or some experience in working with people with developmental disabilities or autism. Or they have a skill or certain heart orientation of ‘I want to learn.’”

The village is largely staffed through an outside agency called North East Educational and Developmental Support Center, or NEEDS. But the rural nature of the Cape, combined with the cost of housing in the region, can often make staffing a challenge, according to Lauren Jones, co-founder of Cape Cod Village. As a result, the nonprofit depends a lot on volunteer help. 

Those interested in volunteering can contact Sullivan at dsullivan@capecodvillage.org.