UPDATE: Friendship Cottage, a vital adult day care center in Blue Hill, Maine, is at risk of closure unless it can successfully raise funds to buy back its facility. The center, which supports adults with mental and physical disabilities, has until now operated under the troubled Downeast Community Partners (DCP). However, with DCP’s recent cessation of operations due to significant financial issues, urgent action is needed.
Supporters of Friendship Cottage have launched a new fundraising campaign to secure the future of the facility, located on Ellsworth Road, which has served the community for over two decades. This is the second time since its founding that the organization has had to initiate such a campaign, highlighting the precariousness of its situation.
DCP, which owes the Maine Department of Health and Human Services over $4 million, officially ceased operations in October, prompting the transfer of most programs to the Aroostook County Action Program (ACAP). As part of DCP’s liquidation process, liens have been filed on multiple properties, including Friendship Cottage, putting its future in jeopardy.
The day care center is essential for many families in Hancock County. Participants receive crucial services during the day, including medication management, hot meals, and community activities. For families like that of Dede Johnson, whose husband relies on the center, the absence of Friendship Cottage would force caregivers to quit their jobs to provide care at home.
“If Friendship Cottage wasn’t here, someone would have to quit their job to come take care of my husband,” Johnson stated. “We couldn’t survive in our household without it.”
Executive Director Ann Ossanna expressed her devastation upon learning that the organization must buy back the property it once successfully raised $1.4 million to purchase and renovate in 2005. “I was devastated, to be honest. I was devastated,” she recalled.
In a press release on November 17, the newly formed Friends of Friendship Cottage announced the urgent need for a fundraising campaign. While Friendship Cottage continues to operate under ACAP as its fiscal sponsor, the release emphasized that “the future of the facility depends on securing ownership of the property.”
Volunteer Barbra Clark, one of the campaign’s organizers, indicated that negotiations with the legal firm managing DCP’s liquidation are ongoing, although the property has not yet been listed for sale. “We don’t know how much they’re going to ask for it,” Clark mentioned.
Jason Parent, Executive Director of ACAP, confirmed that it is “unclear” when the property will officially go on the market. “We are working with a group of interested community members to hopefully purchase the facility,” Parent stated. “No solution is off the table at this point.”
If the fundraising campaign fails to secure the building, Ossanna warns that relocating the program would be nearly impossible. “I’ve looked into other spaces and it’s just not going to happen,” she said. Additionally, should Friendship Cottage have to take on rent or mortgage payments, it could severely impact its already strained finances.
Currently, Friendship Cottage serves 11 participants, five of whom require nursing home-level care. Following the closure of the Island Nursing Home in 2021, it remains one of the only adult care facilities available in Hancock County.
To Ossanna, Friendship Cottage is more than a care facility; it’s a community hub. “It feels like family,” she said. “That’s what we hear again and again from caregivers, ‘you treat our loved ones like you would your own family.’”
The urgency surrounding the future of Friendship Cottage cannot be overstated. As fundraising efforts ramp up, community support will be crucial to ensure that this beloved center remains a cornerstone of care for families in need. Updates will follow as the situation develops.
