Renewing the Countryside is a nonprofit organization that strengthens rural areas by championing and supporting rural communities, farmers, artists, entrepreneurs, educators, activists and other people who are renewing the countryside through sustainable and innovative initiatives, businesses, and projects.

In 2022-23, CURA partnered with Renewing the Countryside and a student researcher to study agricultural easements as a policy tool to preserve agricultural land in Minnesota. Agricultural easements protect the long-term viability of the nation’s food supply by preventing conversion of productive working lands…

Hennepin County contracted with CURA to convene an Anti-Displacement Work Group that centered community voices and brought together diverse stakeholders to study and recommend anti-displacement strategies to help ensure the value of light rail will benefit current corridor residents, and minimize physical, cultural, and economic displacement.

After meeting for more than a year, the work group published their recommendations in May 2023 for public review.

Read the recommendations report

Blue Line Extension Anti-…

Researchers: Madelaine Cahuas (College of Liberal Arts, Department of Geography, Environment and Society) and Jessica Lopez Lyman (College of Liberal Arts, Department of Chicano and Latino Studies)

This study analyzes Latina/o/x displacement and access to affordable housing for families whose children attend two charter schools—Academia Cesar Chavez (Eastside St. Paul) and El Colegio High School (South Minneapolis). Since these schools’ mission and vision are dependent on centering Latina/o/x identity and culture, the potential gentrification of these neighborhoods could lead to decreased enrollments and severe consequences for the schools such as having to…

Researchers: Dr. Ed Brands (Associate Professor of Environmental Studies, Division of the Social Sciences, University of Minnesota Morris) and Dr. Cristina Ortiz (Associate Professor of Anthropology, Division of the Social Sciences, University of Minnesota Morris)

Although the majority of food is produced in sparsely populated rural areas, food insecurity in these same areas is pervasive, likely increasing, and understudied. We propose a five-county regional food systems assessment, coincident with the Horizon Public Health Service area in West-Central Minnesota. This assessment will employ a variety of quantitative (e.g. survey) and qualitative (e.g. participant…

Below is a roundup of project descriptions and partner organizations for the Fall 2022 semester Kris Nelson Community-Based Research Program projects. The projects will run from early September to mid-January. If you want to be informed about upcoming deadlines for the Kris Nelson Program, make sure to subscribe to CURA’s newsletter.

Researcher: Amanda L. Sullivan (Department of Educational Psychology, College of Education and Human Development)

Efficiently, effectively identifying and supporting multiply minoritized P12 students with educational difficulties is increasingly challenging for educational systems nationally, and in Minnesota in particular, given complex issues related to our racial and economic disparities. This project will explore the intersections of two especially vulnerable populations: students who experience housing insecurity and students with disabilities. Research underscores a number of challenges related to the identification of both groups, and these difficulties…

Researcher: Di Zhu (Geography, Environment and Society, College of Liberal Arts)

The geography of a community is not constrained by administrative boundaries. It is in essence, comprised of residents who routinely move around and interact with others, often beyond their local spatial context. One of the most challenging problems in community planning is understanding how fine-grained local regions are irregularly and dynamically organized by human movements. In partnership with MN Compass, Move Minnesota, and local planning agencies, this project will propose an integrated data-driven analytical framework to sense dynamic community structures within the Twin…

CURA’s Public Policy Design Lab worked with Restaurant Opportunities Center of Minnesota (ROC-MN) and Minneapolis-based artist Gina Pena to create a visualization of The Rice Activity: Contextualizing the Working Class. This activity was developed through an earlier research project conducted by a UMN Graduate Research Assistant (supported by CURA’s Kris Nelson Community-Based Research Program ) working with ROC-MN.

This visualization is based on a hands-on version of the…

Passion Project is a film project to initiate dialogue and collective action around the creative labor industry in Northeast Minneapolis. Created by and for BIPOC cultural workers who have a connection to Northeast Minneapolis, the film will document local cultural workers’ lived experiences and individual creative practices, and provide new spaces for mutual aid, resource sharing, and education around collective organizing in arts industries.

Prisons Ain’t Peace is an abolitionist, youth-centered public narrative shaping project. It’s based on the premise that Minneapolis youth deserve communities that are capable of ethically serving young people—that is, without a reliance on imprisonment and carceral violence. Pushing back on the current tough on crime moment in Minneapolis, Prisons Ain’t Peace is a zine that makes a case for youth prison abolition using philosophical, historical, and discourse-based methods.