Sherrian Gray: A focus on community development
She’s a development specialist and a farmer, a woman dedicated to community development.
Sherrian Gray says it was through studying psychology that she came to understand more about human behaviour and the social interactions that define us.
“It is a field that has helped me in doing my work in social and community development and research,” she says, explaining that while growing up in Jamaica, she had realised that the welfare of the Jamaican people was not being adequately addressed.
“As Jamaicans we don’t seem to be interested in the human development part of ourselves, and the mind health and other seemingly ‘softer’ aspects are always neglected.”
Currently focused on social and community development, Gray worked several years in the area of national security and justice in various capacities — research, strategic planning and evaluation.
“We as a nation pay lip service to community development and human development. My personal thinking, research policy and programme experience has led me to start to focus more on the local level, the community, family and individual, looking at how to generate the impact needed to positively affect the lives of Jamaicans.”
During her last consultancy job she was responsible for coordinating the redevelopment process for the community of Majesty Gardens under the Community Renewal Programme (CRP).
“The programme aims to improve the lives of the residents. It looks at state agencies with a view to improve the delivery of services by agencies — housing, remedial education, youth at risk, governance…
“I worked with numerous partner agencies to ensure each entity completed their mandate and the overall goal of the CRP within the community,” she says.
Her team has been able to build homes, establish a literacy and numeracy programme for adult learners, as well as an employment internship programme, all geared towards community development.
Gray also currently has joint ownership in the Plantain Garden River Valley Agropark in St Thomas, and is a primary producer with plans to own her own plot of land soon.
She specialises in the growing of spices, specifically ginger, turmeric and scotch bonnet pepper.
She has future plans to have an agriculture-based export oriented business as well as a professional consultancy service.
