Celebrating Region 5

R5DC is supporting an economic development opportunity that utilizes culinary art, fuctional and nonfunctional art installations and experiences that intend to make Sprout Growers & Makers Marketplace in Little Falls a destination as well a reflection of the unique cultural diversity of central Minnesota.

Sprout Growers & Makers Marketplace is a newly constructed 20,000 sq ft local food processing facility, cooking demonstration kitchen and indoor winter marketplace for growers and makers, established by a cadre of thinkers over the last 6 years who hosted its grand opening April 1, 2016. Sprout Marketplace offers a unique community engagement setting that creatively engages residents to design projects and intrinsic/social programming at a one-of-a-kind regional space where art/culture/food increase cultural appreciation and offer positive economic impacts.

WHAT WILL THIS EFFORT DELIVER?

Commissioned ART. Project Core Team members (from Sprout, R5DC, The Leech Lake Band of Ojibwa, 3 Cheers Hospitality, The Latino Economic Development Corporation and local grower artists with trusted relationships within Amish and Somali grower communities), will continue to meet with culturally diverse communities to prioritize commissioned art that will reside at the Sprout Marketplace to allow for ongoing conversation and appreciation of diverse cultural heritage. 

Art demonstrations. In addition to commissioned art from culturally diverse artist, grant funds will support performing artists and artist demonstrations coordinated for general public on open Marketplace dates.

Multi-cultural culinary art demonstration and cooking classes. Core team members engage regional culinary artists/chefs to set cooking demonstrations and cooking classes of heritage recipes, alongside community members.

Business classes. Growers and artists will set forth a schedule of learning opportunities, such as succession planning that increase economic prosperity.

Deployment of a variety of art forms selected to address economic development offer mutually beneficial impacts. Artists partner with local growers at Sprout Marketplace to increase economic benefits and livable wages for both. All activities improve our region’s way of doing business, create an improved ecosystem that collectively provides new experiences for residents to financially prosper, and welcome all resident to participate and learn from each other in ways that inspire future initiatives.

Resilient Voices Guide Implementation through Distributed Leadership and Placemaking

Successful implementation of the Resilient Region plan was due to the deployment of the Distributed Leadership Model (DLM).  This model is an advanced version of the traditional “collective impact” community development practice. DLM engages regional Champions with intentional focus on engagement of the community benefactors.

“Through this unique model – we want to maximize a collaborative cohort to improve the economic and environmental vitality and quality of life for all in this region.” -Tim Houle, Administrator, Crow Wing County, Chair Resilient Region Champions.

The use of DLM also allowed R5DC to fulfill the regional values of honoring diversity and commitment to inclusion of “all voices to the table”.  For example, we learned that conversation and ideas are richer when artists are brought in during the planning phases versus after all decisions are made.  The artist offers creative and innovative perspectives which advance impacts.  Because the region is committed to quality of life for all people, R5DC sees value in expanding placemaking efforts.

A new placemaking initiative currently underway is a regional branding project.  Thanks to a grant from the National Joint Powers Alliance, R5DC, as well as county economic development practitioners, a consortium of creative thinkers and artists are crafting a regional brand that showcases the five-county area’s assets.  The goal of this “virtual placemaking” project is to retain and attract a workforce to the region. Maintaining our rural culture can be done in ways that add to our economic prosperity, thus, maintaining resilience through the DLM in the context of placemaking is a natural progression.

Connecting the Trip to School with Safety, Health, Community and Choice

When Karolyn Roebuck became the Grants, Testing and Compliance Coordinator for the Cass Lake-Bena School District (CLBS), she quickly saw a need that the school district had been trying to address for many years – a safer route for students to be able to walk and bike to school. The district serves a high poverty (84%, 2010) student population, with most students bussing to school, and others walking or riding bikes on a narrow trail with little or no shoulder paralleling a busy highway. 

“Let’s apply for a planning grant to make sure all connections and needs assessments are done to be able to move forward,” was Karolyn’s recommendation to school administrators, after contacting Tad Erickson, R5DC Regional Planner, to apply for a SRTS Planning Grant. She knew that her goal to sustain a project through this planning process would build capacity through partnerships and working together, resulting in more success.  “Everyone made a commitment to see things through, from the school district, to the city, to the Leech Lake Tribe, to the county, and others.”

“It was very critical that R5DC guided us through the process to have a really good plan, giving us the opportunity to get a grant to fund the bike and walking trail,” stated Karolyn, noting that the trail is on schedule for completion by fall, 2017.

“This has led us to work together on other projects,” because “Safe Routes to Schools connects with goals of increasing physical activity in a safe way,” said Karolyn. Chosen as one of four schools in MN for a MN BCBS Health Learning Connection Pilot, now in its third year with a focus on health, physical exercise and learning, administrators already had increased awareness from the SRTS process, and quickly approved extra P.E. and Health classes. 

Going through R5DC to develop a sound SRTS plan catalyzed the community, according to Karolyn. “If we can have better opportunities for students, community members, families, it’s exciting. A lot of great people are vested.”

Expanding Broadband Access to the Last Rural Mile

The Resilient Region plan prioritized the need for increased connectivity to adequate, affordable broadband as crucial for retaining and attracting both businesses and residents, improving efficiencies and quality in education and health care, and alleviating problems of workforce shortage. “People are interested in staying and/or moving to the rural communities in the region. This includes millennials staying in their hometowns or moving in for the small-town way of life for themselves and their children, and baby boomers making their lake homes permanent residences. A crucial factor is that they need to have broadband, “echoed Brainerd hometown millennial Staci Headley, R5DC Regional Planner.

 Many R5DC's residents live in "last rural mile" communities and farming communities that are "underserved" and “unserved” due to factors that go into making broadband work both technically and economically feasible for those who provide it and those who buy it.

Multiple organizations have supported broadband expansion. The Blandin Foundation supported the Resilient Region’s Virtual Highway Task Force as a Blandin Broadband Community. National Joint Powers Alliance (NJPA) regional purchasing alliance cooperative invested over $200,000 in the past years in engineering needed for grant applications and coordination of other activities by the Virtual Highway Task Force, a subgroup within the Resilient Region Connectivity theme area.

With the initial 4.2 million investments (2014 – 2015) from grants R5DC co-wrote with CTC and West Central Telephone Association (WCTA), along with the Minnesota Office of Broadband Development Investment of $3 million, a total of $7.72 million has been invested in the region to expand broadband infrastructure.  

Connectivity to the last rural mile initiatives (January, 2016) have expanded broadband high speed access to 891 households, giving residents the ability to connect for telework, telehealth, and online learning, and strengthening broadband infrastructure for future growth. One hundred twenty-two low income families also have improved computer and internet skills.

Since 1972, the number of women-owned businesses in the U.S. has risen 3,000 percent. It’s an impressive statistic, especially considering the fact that women were required to have a male co-signer to get a loan until 1988.

About a year ago, Lindsey Hirschey followed her dream of becoming a business owner when she took over the Stomping Grounds coffee shop in Staples. She says it took a “leap of faith” to make that transition into entrepreneurism. But her investment and hard work are paying off.

Stomping Grounds has been a fixture in the small town for about 15 years. When Hirschey learned the shop was about to close last summer, she saw an exciting opportunity.

“I’ve always been a huge fan of coffee and always had that as my thing that when I got older I wanted to own my own shop,” explains Hirschey.  

Hirschey previously managed Giovanni’s Pizza and enjoys working in the service industry. When her son was a toddler, she took a job with an optical shop in order to have more family-friendly hours. But now that he’s older, she has more flexibility.

Hirschey credits her husband Joel for being incredibly supportive of the venture. He also helps with advertising. Stomping Grounds takes advantage of free advertising through Google and Facebook.

She says the shop has had wonderful community support. It has many regulars and has seen many new customers as well. In the tight-knit community, local businesses refer people to Hirschey’s shop and she does the same for them.

Under its new ownership, the shop has undergone some positive changes. The food menu has expanded to include flatbreads as well as soups in the cooler months. The hours have been extended too.

Stomping Grounds serves four types of fresh brewed coffee each day of the week and two on the weekends. Every few months, it has rotating latte flavors. Some of the shop’s signature drinks have been tested this way with customers.

The shop has three employees. All of them are from Staples or married to people from town, according to Hirschey. She says the spot serves as an important local gathering place for friends, families and community groups.

Eventually, Hirschey says she might like to find a location where they can expand to have a drive-up window. But for now, she’s enjoying all the challenges of being a new business owner.

“Every day I go in there’s something new. I absolutely love it,” she says. “I think to myself, ‘I’m really doing this, I’m living my dream.’”