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Small town community members representing diverse backgrounds and professions gather together on their Main Street.

Thriving communities where people flourish

Extension Community Development partners with Minnesota communities to develop capacity, tools, and programs that respond to community needs.

Find resources on this page to strengthen and support your community's economics, leadership and civic engagement, and tourism.

Features

Community succession is community development

Who leads, who owns, and how should local resources be retained and used? Read about what Ely, Minnesota taught us.

Better together: shared interdependence connects rural and urban communities

Ellen Wolter wanted to start a new kind of conversation — one that shows rural and urban areas are connected and dependent on each other.

Opportunities and support for entrepreneurs

Rural residents start more businesses but feel fewer opportunities and less support.

Community economics

Help your community develop an economic strategy.

Connecting Minnesota's entreprenurial communities

Supporting local entrepreneurs requires a mix of creative community action, shared knowledge, and access to the right resources. Learn how a conference and field trip bridge communities.

Downtown Market Analysis Toolbox

Find no-cost market research and resources to help analyze your downtown markets. These tools can help small-town businesses thrive.

Informing retail recovery

Get to know your county's retail sector. Review data on trends over time and put current numbers into content to help your local retailers.

Retaining businesses in your community

Community-based research creates a community-driven plan to support local business.

Supporting business succession and transition

Baby boomers are retiring and they're selling their businesses. Is your community ready? Learn how to support business owners before and after a transfer of ownership.

Strengthening community support for entrepreneurs

What do entrepreneurs need to succeed? Read how you can help your community focus on entrepreneurs.

Understanding local economies

How would a change impact your local economy? Find resources to help your community learn more.

Transfer of wealth

Over the next 10 years, baby boomers in Minnesota will transfer $105 billion of their wealth to the next generation. Will your local community benefit?

Leadership and civic engagement

Help community leaders grow and strengthen their leadership.

Assessing your leadership

Is your community willing to invest in its future? Take our assessment and discover your community's leadership strengths and priorities.

Public engagement strategies

Find resources to help you increase public involvement, assist with meeting planning, facilitation and make group decisions.

Building trust in communities

What connects you to others in your community? Learn how social capital is the glue that holds communities together and ways to build and grow trust.

Exploring the impact of charismatic leaders in communities

How do charismatic leaders impact communities? Learn about charismatic leadership, followership and the development of connections in communities.

Strengthening tribal leadership

We're working to engage tribal leaders and strengthen partnerships in Minnesota. Explore ways to learn and engage with us.

Tourism development

Help create and sustain local tourism experiences.

Building local tourism

Assisting Minnesota communities with local economic growth through tourism.

Planning and promoting agritourism

A corn maze, a barn wedding, and a tour of a bison ranch are all examples of agritourism. Learn how agritourism helps farmers and communities, and find some helpful resources.

Projects and completed studies

Learn about completed and ongoing projects and research that help inform community decisions.

A rural brain gain migration

There's a brain gain in rural Minnesota. Learn about the trend and how Extension can help your community create a vision for attracting new residents.

Greater Minnesota's economy

What factors are affecting Greater Minnesota's economy? Read about our research study. Learn how 'it's not your grandmother's rural economy anymore.'

Ripple effect mapping

How do you evaluate your community development work? Learn about ripple effect mapping (REM) and how it tells the story of a program through maps.

Rural grocery stores

Small-town grocery stores are the heart of rural Minnesota communities.

Rural housing solutions

How can a community attract workers without affordable housing? Learn about our rural housing study and creative solutions communities found for housing.

Research and training options

Learn how we connect with communities and about available consultation, research and training offerings.

Community research and workshops

We help communities choose their future. Together we can create research that answers your key questions or design community workshops that bring valuable information to your local discussions.

Community leadership programs

Extension works with sponsors of leadership and civic engagement programs to grow local leadership. Learn about programs happening across Minnesota.

Coaching and training for local business retention

Is your community ready to launch a business retention initiative in Minnesota? Extension offers training, facilitation and expert advice to community leaders to help you move through the process.

Community Development (CD) Exchange

Join a free webinar to learn about new research and trending topics relating to community development.

Breakfast Info Bites

On the third Wednesday of the month, start your day with a bite-sized nugget of cutting-edge research.

Consult with us

Community economics • Leadership and civic engagement • Tourism

Extension educators work in, and partner with, communities throughout Minnesota. Contact us for consultation, guidance and conversation about your community.

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