LOCALLY POWERED, MEANINGFULLY TRANSFORMED

Every community has a story, and many happen in the heart of the downtown district. Look around and you’ll find treasures you never expected along the thriving main streets of villages and cities all across our state. From charming small-town offerings like New Rockford’s Opera House or Watford City’s Outlaws Bar & Grill to our larger communities’ vibrant shopping, entertainment and diverse dining, a lot is happening on main street North Dakota. 

Vibrant community centers are a fundamental element of workforce development. North Dakota’s Main Street initiative provides community leaders with direct access to tools and resources to capitalize on their community’s strengths and make sound planning decisions. These efforts help create vibrant communities that attract and retain the 21st-century skilled workforce North Dakota needs to compete and succeed in a global economy.

MSI Community Chats

The Main Street Initiative Team invites you to join our monthly Community Chats webinars! These sessions were designed to provide community, regional and statewide volunteers and leaders an opportunity to learn more about a topic.  These sessions also offer an open space for questions and conversations and leave attendees with funding resources and actionable items that can be implemented within their own communities. Please join us for these 45 minute sessions and take away key insights into the Four Pillars of the Main Street Initiative: Healthy, Vibrant Communities, 21st Century Workforce, Smart, Efficient Infrastructure and Economic Diversification.

MSI Data Symposium - April 19th, 2024

In lieu of the Main Street Initiative and the ND Department of Commerce’s monthly community Chats Webinar, hosted a FREE Virtual Rural Data Symposium. In case you missed the symposium or would like to reference any of the material from the webinar, you can click the link below to gather all those assets and to watch the video.

Virtual Rural Data Symposium Video and Materials

In case you have missed any of the previous chats and topics, you can watch the video recordings by clicking the link below.

Community Chats Archive

LINKS & RESOURCES

• Sign up for the Commerce Newsletter
• Become a Main Street Community
• Economic/Community Development Ecosystem Map
• Main Street Summit
• Main Street Awards

• Main Street Summit
• Main Street Awards
• Main Street Fact Sheet

North Dakota Council on the Arts

• Community Arts Access Provides financial assistance to nonprofits in communities to create arts programming or arts events. 
• Special Projects provides financial assistance to communities for new art projects or to capitalize on touring arts events.   

ND Parks and Recreation

• State Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan - Assists local governments with planning for outdoor recreation facilities and programs.

U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development

• Community Facilities Technical Assistance and Training Grant  - Grant funding for public bodies and nonprofits to pay for assistance on a community facility projects.
• Community Facilities Grant and Loan Program - Funding to develop essential community facilities in rural areas. 

AARP

• AARP Community Challenge Grant - Challenge to fund projects to build momentum to improve livability for residents.  

Rural America Placemaking Toolkit

• A resource to identify placemaking projects that align with your community capacity. www.ruralplacemaking.com