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D4CR
Welcome.
Welcome.
Design for Community Regeneration (D4CR) is a Minnesota Design Center initiative led by Tim Griffin, Jonee Kulman Brigham, and Ursula Lang. D4CR partners with communities in a process of imagining and planning their regenerative and resilient future addressing food, water, and energy security while increasing economic opportunities, social cohesion, and finding low cost housing options. Communities participate in a ground-up "Geodesign" process assisted by geographic data, and a dashboard for community goals. Regional clusters of rural, peri-urban, and urban communities will explore how to identify their assets of land such as underutilized golf courses, school properties, and industrial sites and participate in an inclusive decision process about future regenerative land use yielding initiatives ready for prototyping and implementation.
Current Projects
Current Projects
D4CR Northwest MN
The D4CR Team with its partners, received a Deepening Impact grant from the NW Regional Sustainable Development Partnership to continue its work in Northwest Minnesota. Building off of the successful work in Warren, MN, this grant is part one of a two-year vision to engage organizations and communities across NW Minnesota to envision a regenerative and resilient future, and identify opportunities for coordinated community innovations toward that future.
D4CR Approach in ESMC Projects
Highway 11 Cities of Badger, Warroad, Baudette
The Empowering Small Minnesota Communities (ESMC) program is a community-centered collaboration with the University of Minnesota to support small communities in becoming well-positioned to benefit from federal, state, and local investments.
ESMC Grantees in the "Community Futures" track work with a consulting team from the University of Minnesota - Minnesota Design Center. One of the teams is the D4CR team that brings the relevant parts of the D4CR process to the communities it serves.
D4CR Idea Deck
The D4CR Idea Deck is a way for community members to engage with innovations and best practice ideas for their community, plan for where they make sense in their community, and prioritize next steps.
The D4CR Idea Deck has been piloted in Northwest MN - you can see some elements in that project, with more info coming in June.
MN Community Atlas
& D4CR Northwest Atlas
The MN Community Atlas is being co-developed across several projects. A live statewide version is available at this LINK. A D4CR Northwest MN Version is was recently piloted in Northwest MN and zoom in on the region and communities we are working with, and include other materials from our work together. See progress on the D4CR Northwest Atlas.
The Regional Sustainable Development Partnership RSDP brings together community and University knowledge and resources to drive sustainability in four focus areas: agriculture and food systems, clean energy, natural resources and resilient communities.
Pilot: NW Minnesota 2020-Current
Pilot: NW Minnesota 2020-Current
D4CR is a decade-long plan for piloting and then expanding a Design for Community Regeneration model across Minnesota.
The first pilot project (2020-2022) was funded for application in Warren, Minnesota. The project was made possible by funding from the Northwest Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships (NWRSDP), City of Warren, and in-kind support from partner organizations. D4CR Warren Phase 1 resulted in a list of potential regenerative innovations for Warren and Phase 2 continued with four prototype projects prioritized by the community to be further evaluated to help move Warren toward implementation. Additionally CERTS Clean Energy Resource Teams) funded a detailed clean energy independence report.
We were currently funded by NWRSDP in a two-year process to work with regional and local representatives to consider the opportunities of regional and sub-regional cooperation. This two-year project is coming to completion in June 2025.
If you are interested in learning more, following our progress, contributing ideas or funds, or becoming a future D4CR community, please contact Tim Griffin at griff282@umn.edu
Connecting Local, Regional, and State Planning
Connecting Local, Regional, and State Planning
D4CR is connecting across communities and regions to grow the 10 year vision for regenerative planning.
Be part of the D4CR Network
Be part of the D4CR Network
Fill out this Interest Survey to express your interest and receive occasional emails.
Fill out this Interest Survey to express your interest and receive occasional emails.
Use our survey to express your interest in D4CR, whether you are a city that wants to explore participation, want to provide input, partner, or fund the project, or if you'd just like to connect and be on our mailing list. Mailings are typically 1-4 times/year. See who else has signed up on the map.
Use the QR code or this LINK
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