Amanda Ravenhill

Amanda Ravenhill will be working with the Town of Cranberry Isles on a community-sustainability initiative: a multi-faceted project to examine and address many tactics, such as including land-use policies, renewable energy options and local-food production, for creating a sustainable “green” community.

Amanda will be coordinating a connection between The Town of Cranberry Isles and College of the Atlantic that taps into the college’s expertise in regards to sustainable communities and land-use and provides service-learning opportunities for students. Amanda will also be spearheading an assessment of island hydrology, collaborating with the Comprehensive Plan Committee on a Land Use Plan for shorefront and inland zoning, and conducting GIS mapping of harbors and mooring locations.

In addition to researching various technological, regulatory or enticement methods for increasing energy efficiency, Amanda will assist in the implementation of an island-wide energy audit to determine how islanders can with reduce their carbon footprint as well as save money on utilities. She will also work on educating islanders about an option to switch to renewable energy sources, setting a goal of having at least 50% of islanders use green energy sources within two years, and developing an energy-conservation curriculum in collaboration with the Islesford School. In addition, she will be working with the Town of Cranberry Isles to support their work on local alternative-energy projects, including the feasibility of a demonstration wind-generation project to be built in 2008.

Amanda will also conduct research on food co-ops and island farming; working to increase the amount of food grown on-island as well as increasing the efficiency of the co-op-buying model.

Bringing extensive experience and a passion for community development to her Fellowship, Amanda Ravenhill has worked on community initiatives in Bolivia, the Dominican Republic, Namibia and Maine.

Amanda served as a teacher’s aide and as a nurse’s aide in Caritas, Bolivia, developing and conducting educational activities for children at a nutritional-recuperation camp and assisting a nurse with malaria education and treatment visits to outlying communities. Amanda has also served as a project director, grant writer and translator with Quipus Cultural Foundation in Bolivia, and directed the Bolivian fair-trade handicraft program, Ananay, coordinating the development of new lines of Bolivian handicrafts and maintaining contact and open lines of communication between clients and producers.

While in the Dominican Republic, Amanda served as the program manager with Fundacion Genesis, where she managed and coordinated a summer-education program for 4 to 15 year-olds in a semi-rural community outside Santa Domingo. She also served as a project manager and translator with Community Service Alliance in Santa Domingo, managing a community-service project at an orphanage and school for 80 girls ages 4 to 18, providing orientation, direction and translation for other volunteers.

In Namibia, Amanda was a project coordinator with Management Sciences for Health, where she coordinated an evaluation of the public-sector pharmacy-distribution system.

Amanda has been a seasonal resident of Islesford her entire life, and is extremely dedicated to the Cranberry Isles community. She has served as the vice president and community events director with the Islesford Neighborhood House Association, acting as leader and organizer of many of the island’s principal summer-events and helping to successfully raise funds for a new fire truck, students’ Scholarship Funds, and the Islesford Historical Society. Amanda and her two brothers also founded the nonprofit Islesford Boatworks in 2004, a wooden-boatbuilding school for island children, where she serves as secretary and boatbuilding instructor. Amanda will be serving as the Cranberry Isles Sustainable Community Fellow until August, 2008, when she plans to leave for graduate school.

Amanda says, “The Cranberry Isles are vulnerable as year-round communities due to economic, political and societal circumstances that the Institute knows well. But there is a separate susceptibility that the Cranberry Isles face -- the effects of global climate change. In October, the Cranberry Isles Sustainability Initiative was born as a forum to discuss past, present and future efforts to ensure the sustainability of the Cranberry Isles’ vibrant community and environment. We aim to put the Cranberry Isles on the map as the foremost forward-thinking, “green” town in the area.

This year, during my time as a fellow, I plan to work on making the dreams of the Sustainability Initiative a reality. I envision a Cranberry Isles where the communities function not only with sustainability in mind but also with goals of rejuvenation. I like to imagine a Cranberry Isles that grows more beautiful and productive with every generation. These islands have a geographical heritage that has led its residents to be conscious consumers, as we are forced to import most of our goods and export most of our trash. I believe that these circumstances can lead us to be even more conscious as we reduce what we bring on-island, including energy, and reduce what we take off, thus reducing our global impact. As we become a “greener” town we will naturally attract new residents, who regard this type of lifestyle highly. It is exactly this population that will rejuvenate our ageing population and bring new industry and families with them, uplifting our communities to become an example to all. We can become an exemplary town, one in which we grow our own food, make our own electricity and export goodness. We have what it takes; we are well endowed with education, monetary wealth, social equity and a strong sense of place. I believe we have the drivers to get us to where we need to be, for ourselves and also as a beacon of light for others who are trying to find ways to be environmentally responsible. We live here because it is beautiful and that reason alone can drive us to make local action to affect global change.

I eagerly await the tasks in front of me, as I know I will gain a better understanding for sustainable community development and hands-on experience that I will take with me to whatever future communities I work with.”

Email Amanda