March 22, 2023

Apply Today - Deadline March 31

Potential participants should fill out an application form. Because space is limited, we will contact you shortly after the application deadline to schedule an interview or confirm your enrollment.

Apply now for Neighborhoods Now!

Neighborhoods Now! Program Calendar

The course is May 1-5 from 10am - 4pm each day conducted in person. The course will also have select guest speakers from…

February 24, 2023

The Kris Nelson Community-Based Research Program at the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA) builds the power and capacity of community-based organizations to create social change through partnerships with the University of Minnesota. We match the research and technical needs of organizations with student research assistants to carry out community-defined and community-guided projects. CURA works with organizations selected for the program to create shared…

February 16, 2023

 

CURA’s Artist Neighborhood Partnership Initiative (ANPI) provides small grants to artists of color and Native artists working in neighborhoods in Minneapolis, St. Paul and the surrounding suburbs. ANPI grants recognize the valuable role that artists and the arts play in the work of fostering neighborhood wellbeing, and are intended to support the leadership of artists in these efforts. This grant program is particularly focused on directly funding individual artists or groups of artists working to build a more equitable Twin Cities.

We are…

October 14, 2022

CURA's Community Geographic Information Systems (CGIS) program and the Resilient Communities Project (RCP) are partnering with the Institute for Advanced Study, U-Spatial, University of Minnesota Libraries, and DASH to present this year's “Thinking Spatially Symposium: Indigenous Mapping.” Former CURA CGIS Graduate Research Assistant Kyle Malone is…

September 28, 2022

The Kris Nelson Community-Based Research Program at the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA) builds the power and capacity of community-based organizations to create social change through partnerships with the University of Minnesota. We match the research and technical needs of organizations with student research assistants to carry out community-defined and community-guided projects. CURA works with organizations selected for the program to create shared…

September 22, 2022

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 CURAs newsletter.

September 22, 2022

Organization: MN8

Currently there is a lack of formalized knowledge about Khmer Americans in Minnesota despite the fact that Hampton, Minnesota is home to the largest Cambodian Buddhist temple in the world outside of Cambodia. 

From fall 2021 to spring 2022, we worked with members of Wilder Research’s Pro Bono Research Program to conduct the first-of-its-kind Community Needs Assessment of the Cambodian American community in Minnesota. We co-created a mixed-methods project that included a statewide analysis of available data on Cambodian Americans in Minnesota and up to 20 interviews with Cambodian Americans about…

September 22, 2022

Organization: Renewing the Countryside

Farmland access is identified as the biggest challenge for emerging farmers—particularly Black and Brown farmers—in developing viable businesses and growing capacity for community resilience. While finding affordable land to lease or purchase is part of the challenge, an additional challenge is understanding the policies, codes and ordinances that regulate what can be done at county, city and township levels. Through our work and that of our partners working on farmland access, we regularly see emerging farmers either…