Interview with Director Shaun Ingraham
by Perry Joseph
One Eleuthera Foundation is an organization that is keenly aware of Eleuthera's rich historical background, its resourceful people and variety of organizations who support it. The organization is fortunate in having a highly motivated Director, Mr. Shaun Ingraham. Shaun is most passionate about Eleuthera and its potential to serve the needs of the diverse groups of people that include the indigenous people, second home owners and visitors who choose Eleuthera as their vacation and travel destination.
The objective of Eleuthera Map has always been to promote Eleuthera as a place of beauty and a “must see” destination in the Bahamas. To that end, Eleuthera Map has refrained from promoting organizations who may have political positions or other agendas and activities which might be construed as controversial or preferential. Having said that, One Eleuthera is a unique organization that we feel is worthy of promotion because it offers a “win-win” solution for promoting Eleuthera by providing most everyone a seat at the table of discussion.
We spent some time interviewing Shaun and found him to be a very capable organizer who has a unique background and a solid grasp of what's a stake when it comes to the future of Eleuthera and its people. We believe his efforts and the efforts of those involved with the One Eleuthera Foundation will have a positive and lasting effect on the island. One example of their recent efforts is the establishment of the Eleuthera Heritage Trail which identifies some of the prominent and unique historical features of Eleuthera Island. We look forward to providing more information about the Heritage Trail as it becomes established. Take a few moments and check out the One Eleuthera website to see what is new. If you like what you see, please consider supporting their efforts with a donation. We think it is an excellent organization not to mention a great group of people.
Q - We are visiting with Shaun Ingraham. Shaun, is this where you were born?
A - Yes, I was born in Tarpum Bay, Eleuthera.
Q - How long have you lived on Eleuthera?
A - Well, off and on all of my life, but I came back home 5 ½ years ago.
Q - You went to school here?
A - I went to high school here, college in Nassau, college in Florida, to my Masters in Atlanta. I worked abroad with different organizations, Habitat for Humanity, Food for the Hungry, other organizations in disaster management.
Q - So you have a connection here with the organization called One Eleuthera. Now who started that?
A - Pretty much Marjie Findlay, a second homeowner, some other non profit leaders and myself that basically came up with the idea. We had started some other organizations and were just being stretched in a lot of different directions.
Some of our supporters said why don’t you consider an umbrella organization. You could lend technical support to all of them at one time and we will support you. We started to work on it, and produced the Shared Vision report [A Shared Vision for South Eleuthera] that you have probably seen. We were trying to advocate and protect Light House Beach, keeping that as a protected area for locals and visitors alike. This was done with Michael Singer, and out of the shared vision came One Eleuthera. Now that we had a report of what we wanted to see and what we wanted it to be, we decided it was now time to put that report into action.
Q - Tell us about what the objective is for One Eleuthera. What do you see as being the long term goals?
A - The three key principles we keep touting is connecting, strengthening, and planning. We felt like we needed to connect Eleuthera and make more people aware of some of the other things that are on the island. It’s been amazing how people in North Eleuthera don’t now what’s happening in South Eleuthera. They don’t know that part of our heritage down there is an old slave plantation. The people in the south don’t know exactly how Preacher’s Cave fits into our history as the birth place of the modern Bahamas or Cupid’s Cay. So part of what we want to do is celebrate the fact that we are one land mass connected island, we are one culture, we do celebrate one culture, one history on this island and we have to understand where that comes from. So one of our basic principles is connecting Eleuthera, but also connecting outside to other organizations that have worked here, lived here or connecting to people who love Eleuthera and seeing them come back and help us rebuild it.
We also talk about strengthening our cultural assets. We can gain a lot from our cultural assets. They speak to our past and give meaning to our past and influences our lives, which if in bad shape, or is not clean are not interpreted properly. I think it’s been a downfall because our children don’t know that time ago, we had a farm here that was working, that produced poultry, beef and milk, and exported it off of Eleuthera. Not only do we want to strengthen our cultural assets, but also our social institutions such as our health care institutions and our educational institutions so that we don’t have to always be playing from behind. We have one of the highest cancer rates in the world… 25% of our women get breast cancer, second are the Ashkenazi Jewish women at 10%. We need to understand that and I think the biggest challenge is here with that and it just needs to be Ground Zero in looking for a solution. So we need to strengthen. 65% of our people die from non-communicable diseases, diabetes, and hypertension. With these high rates, I think Eleutherans need to understand what’s a stake and we need to find solutions. So we need to strengthen our local organizations so that they can become a little more professional and respond more effectively to some of the challenges in health care and education.
Third is planning. We need to plan as an island that this is where we want to be in 20 years and not allow the outside world to come in and say this is a beautiful spot and we are going to tell you what’s going to happen here. I think planning needs to be done in a conversation with everybody around the table whether you are a developer, planner, government or non-profit organization. All of us need to sit down and say this is where we are now, these are the challenges we anticipate, and this is how we intend to respond to them.
Q - I like the idea that you are providing a facility to those that have an interest in Eleuthera from a variety of aspects, not just from development, but also from the cultural and historical fields. My question to you is how do you plan on interfacing and inviting these people to participate with One Eleuthera?
A - We have a web portal, OneEleuthera.org. We have what we call secretariats which looks at five different areas; health care, education, economic development, cultural and heritage and environmental planning. Each one of these would have a round table at least two or three times a year where there is discussion around those particular initiatives. Those things are then funneled up to general Board. We have membership. Membership allows you certain things. You can get into the organization to discuss and have your views aired before the Board once you become a member. Obviously, different members have different privileges.
Q - So to an individual that might come down to Eleuthera and enjoy the island for a week, a traveler that might be casual, he’s just as welcome to participate in the development and support of One Eleuthera as those who may spend a substantial amount of time, if not most of their life here, is that right?
A - That’s right. We say to anyone who lives, works or plays on Eleuthera, we would like to hear from you; we would like you to be a part of this conversation. This is an ongoing conversation. Recently I had two conversations via Skype from Eleuthera, one was on a cultural initiative where we were talking to people in New York and Cincinnati and another conversation with health care workers, in Nassau, Maryland, and Texas. This goes to show that anybody can participate in helping to shape Eleuthera’s future.
Q - So you are going to share all of this information on your website?
A - Yes. We are building that site out right now. We are hoping that is fully up and we are doing beta testing [Ed note: Their website is now operational.] We just did basic information for the launch, but by the end of May, we will have a full time web person, full time facilitator, a portal manager that’s on board 24/7 to take care of this, and she is being trained now. We are working with the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. They have a PhD student that’s doing a PhD in Technology and in heritage management. So we are trying to make it where it is not just a website for information, but it’s a tool that’s being used to encourage and promote dialogue and action. So that’s our next big project right now. We are excited about it. We have somebody in mind that we know will help us manage very effectively. So the web portal is really a tool to manage our work.
Q - That sounds good Shaun. We really appreciate you taking your time to spend with us today, and we will be sure to send people on over to OneEleuthera.org and spread the word of the Foundation on Eleuthera Map.