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Anne Colwell, CEO of Cape Cod Child Development.
HYANNIS – The new CEO of Cape Cod Child Development grew up on Cape Cod in the town of Sandwich and is committed to moving the 40-year-old agency forward.
Before joining Cape Cod Child Development, Anne Colwell had a 26-year career in the healthcare and financial services fields, most recently with South Coast Health Systems out of New Bedford, a large health services company with three hospitals and 7,200 employees.
She said when she was approached in December about the top job at Cape Cod Child Development, what appealed to her was “the great child and family advocacy that Cape Cod Child Development is known for. We’re a best practices organization, the premier provider of child care and family services across the Cape and Islands.”
As the mother of two teenage daughters, Colwell said, “I feel very passionately about helping all children and families on Cape Cod.”
Cape Cod Child Development was founded over 44 years ago, and the agency these days, Colwell said, “touches on average more than 2,500 families, and offers early intervention services for over 800 children per year.”
Those early intervention services help children with developmental challenges of any type, she said.
The agency also runs preschool and Head Start programs, and three program for school-age children in Hyannis, West Yarmouth and Falmouth, serving 145 children ages 5 to 12. They also work with 30 licensed homecare providers who care for children ages four weeks old to school age with support and curriculum training, as well as licensing.
Looking forward, Colwell said, one of her goals is to move Cape Cod Child Development into “a much more visible position into the community.”
The agency currently gets 80 percent of its funding from state, federal and town sources, an amount, Colwell said, “is not sustainable.”
“We need to bring in different revenue streams,” she said, adding that the agency will be looking to collaborate with other agencies.
Colwell credited the agency’s longtime leader, Mary Pat Messmer, with building a solid programmatic and operational foundation over the 19 years she was at the helm.
The $11 million agency currently receives about a half million dollars in grants per year with about $100,000 of those in unrestricted funds. Focusing on philanthropy, Colwell said, will be one of her priorities.
According to the agency’s website, the mission of Cape Cod Child Development is “to serve as a community resource that provides childcare, educational and developmental intervention, and family support services.”
Listen below to Anne Colwell, new CEO of Cape Cod Child Development, discuss the agency.
