The North Central Regional Center for Rural Development (NCRCRD) is pleased to announce the formation and funding of a new North Central Region thematic, multi-state Place Action Working Group. The group will center on place actions which are the actions it takes to purposefully increase the likelihood people will connect positively with a place and with each other.
The goal of the Place Action Working Group, is to develop and sustain systems for culling, creating, accessing, training, and applying place and place action knowledge for practitioners and professionals working with rural communities in the North Central Region. Led by principal investigator Todd Barman, a Downtown Development Extension Specialist with the University of Wisconsin-Madison, this three-year collaborative effort also includes plans to establish a core community of practice through monthly meetings; to host an inaugural place action summit for academics and practitioners from various backgrounds; to develop a virtual repository of place action resources, best practices, and case studies; and to produce new place action scholarship.
Currently, six North Central Region land-grant institutions plan to participate in the working group and include: Michigan State University, Purdue University, University of Minnesota, University of Missouri, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and University of Wisconsin. Reflecting the complexity of place making, the participants from these core institutions bring a wide variety of specialties that include community development, entrepreneurship, food systems, sustainable development, community land use/landscape planning, economic development, strategic communication, natural resources, food entrepreneurship, community engagement, urban planning, applied research, community arts and more.
Project Summary
The place action working group received a 3-year grant from the NCRCRD totaling $50,000. The group will share their findings and progress with NCRCRD each year of the funded project and upon completion with the broader North Central Region in an NCRCRD-hosted webinar.
Project Title: In Pursuit of Place: Developing Resilient & Meaningful Communities
Principal Investigator: Todd Barman, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Start Date: September 1, 2024
NCRCRD Priority Area: Creating Resilient Communities and Economies
NCRCRD offers multiple types of grants each year to enhance the ability of the North Central Region’s thirty-four land-grant institutions to positively influence the quality of life in the region’s rural areas. In addition to funding Thematic Working Groups, NCRCRD also offers Small Grants for Rural Development Research and/or Extension Projects and the NCR Extension Collaboration and Implementation Grant. For more information about these grant opportunities, visit: https://ncrcrd.ag.purdue.edu/funding-opportunities/grants-and-fellowships/
All grant submissions are reviewed by the NCRCRD advisory committee and based on their recommendations, the NCRCRD board selects the final recipients. Because NCRCRD receives its core funding from the U. S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA NIFA), the grants are also reviewed and approved by the USDA for consistency with Federal guidelines.
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The North Central Regional Center for Rural (NCRCRD) is one of four Regional Rural Development Centers in the United States. NCRCRD’s work links the research and educational outreach capacity of our region’s 34 land-grant universities with our region’s communities, local decision-makers, entrepreneurs, families, farmers, and ranchers to help address a wide range of development issues unique to our 12-state region. NCRCRD promotes regional collaboration by elevating the research and extension programs in our region; offering grant opportunities to support new and ongoing regional research, extension, and integrated activities; establishing a North Central Region dataset to encourage regional exploration; and creating networking opportunities through webinars, sponsorships, and making introductions between our partners. For more information, please visit https://ncrcrd.org/.
NCRCRD receives core funds from the U. S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA NIFA) as well as from the North Central Regional Association of State Agricultural Experiment Station Directors (NCRA), North Central Cooperatives of Extension Association (NCCEA), and Purdue University, College of Agriculture.
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