The building that houses the last skilled nursing facility in Hancock County has been purchased by the three-county community action program that took over Downeast Community Partner’s regional services.
Friendship Cottage was bought out of court receivership last week after months of fundraising.
It should secure the adult day care center’s future and preserve access to skilled care in an area with an aging population where other nursing facilities have closed in recent years. The new agency, temporarily named Community Action in Aroostook, Washington and Hancock Counties, continues to establish itself Down East almost a year after its predecessor shut down.
Volunteers raised $750,000 in four months to purchase the Friendship Cottage building and make “critical” repairs, including of a leaky roof, according to CEO Jason Parent. It’s the second time in the past two decades that donations have been raised to purchase the property, which had been a cafe prior to a previous social services agency starting programs there in 2008.
Regional community action agencies coordinate services for low-income people and try to address the causes of poverty through programs such as early childcare, transportation, home weatherization, heating assistance and elder care. They are funded largely through federal block grants distributed by state governments.
Maine’s eastern coastal counties got those services for years through Downeast Community Partners. Last summer, it turned over operations to its Aroostook County counterpart amid ongoing financial problems, late audits, leadership turnover and apparent trouble fulfilling state contracts.
A new three-county agency formed as an expansion of Aroostook County’s agency to keep delivering those services. Its new service region covers 35% of Maine’s landmass and makes up an area the size of Maryland, Parent noted.
Since mid-October of 2025, the agency has held almost all of Downeast Community Partners’ former program and service contracts. Its transportation program had already closed, with Waldo County Transportation moving in to fill the gap.
A program providing in-home nurse visits for new mothers also ended when the state did not re-issue a grant proposal last year, saying it had staff to offer services on its own.
The new agency has a new 30-member board of directors representing the three counties as of late May, following a four-month search process across the region. Community action agencies are required to have tripartite boards, which include representatives from people who use their services, public officials and private individuals or groups.
A six-member nominating committee with two members from each county recruited members, and the process also included seven other social service groups and commissioners from the three counties, according to Parent.
“We have taken great strides to ensure the voices of the communities we serve [are] carrying our new agency forward,” Parent said.
The agency plans to announce its new name and logo in mid-September.
Downeast programs were largely centered in Ellsworth in recent years, Parent said, and the new agency is also working to deliver services more directly throughout the counties again.
The Ellsworth building that houses Head Start has become a “comprehensive service center” with staff from multiple programs working in one place, he said. The agency now runs school partnerships in Bucksport, Deer Isle, the University of Maine at Machias, and Washington County Community College in Calais.
The agency also has office space in Calais City Hall and is finalizing a similar agreement in Machias. Its mobile service unit has visited both coastal counties for smaller rural towns where transportation challenges are common.
