provided to The Santiva Chronicle
Planted as a seed by two Sanibel businessmen post-Ian to map the recovery progress of the islands, originally under the name Sanibel Solutions, SanCap360 Community Health Dashboard has evolved. Through collaboration with the City of Sanibel, SanCap Chamber, Charitable Foundation of the Islands (CFI), and Hammerhead Technology, it provides, as a city council proclamation passed June 11 reads, “valuable data and insights that support informed decision-making, community wellbeing, resilience, and the long-term vitality of Sanibel and Captiva.”
“The vision for the Community Health Dashboard originated with island residents Doug Congress and Eric Pfeifer, whose commitment to strengthening the Sanibel and Captiva community inspired the project,” said Dolly Farrell, executive director of CFI, which provided support through its Community Impact Fund. “We extend our sincere gratitude to the generous donors and supporters of the Community Impact Fund, whose investment in innovative, community-driven solutions continues to strengthen our island community.”
Through a collaborative partnership, Florida Gulf Coast University’s (FGCU) AIN Hub for Innovation and Design helped bring the vision to life by developing a prototype of the dashboard. Brian Rist, FGCU professor and Sanibel resident, was highly instrumental in connecting the university with the islands and fostering the important collaboration.
Building on that early vision, Hammerhead Technology designed and developed an entirely new platform to bring SanCap360 to life and now collects, manages, and maintains the data behind it. The dashboard’s website, sancap360.org, has gone live, populated with a wealth of information focused on four pillars: Economy, Community Wellbeing, Environment, and Infrastructure & Services.
Along with CFI, the city and chamber each provide equal funding to keep SanCap360 current and accessible. Hammerhead Technology provided in-kind services to support the development and launch of the dashboard.
“From a business standpoint, SanCap360 is invaluable to our members – tabulating everything from real estate listings and sales to bed taxes and employment rate,” said John Lai, president and CEO of SanCap Chamber. “Traffic, weather, education: This is truly the big picture of island life.”
“SanCap360 is an important tool that helps us better understand the economic health of our community,” said Dana Souza, city manager for the City of Sanibel. “By bringing together reliable, up-to-date information in one place, the dashboard provides valuable insights that will inform decision-making across multiple sectors. SanCap360 demonstrates the power of collaboration and data-sharing to support economic resilience, strengthen strategic planning, and contribute to the community’s long-term success.”
“As a Sanibel-based company, we built SanCap360 to give our own community a clear, trustworthy picture of island life,” said Corrie Presland-Byrne of Hammerhead Technology. “We engineered it as a platform from the ground up — one that keeps getting richer as data is added and provides transparency through authoritative data sources.”
Limited sponsorships are available for SanCap360. Interested parties should contact Lai at 239-472-2348 or John@sanibel-captiva.org.