Ground Level®: Amplifying Community Voices

Your story is powerful. The stories you share with others honor the complexity of our communities while forging a more equitable and vibrant future.

Call 651-228-4800 and leave us a voice memo. If you're more comfortable texting, you can text “Hello” to 1-833-870-4111. You can also email us at tell@mpr.org and join in on conversations in our Ground Level Facebook group.

We’d like to hear your thoughts and questions. Your ideas about solutions. How are your communities? What are you seeing today? And what do you want to see tomorrow?

Note that while we will exercise editorial judgment for language, length and avoiding personal attacks, we will not sacrifice your meaning. We will ensure your main message comes through on air and online.

There’s nothing like a good rumor
Someone has plans for the mattress factory building in Bertha, Minn. If you know more, comment on this blog post.
Farms and suburbs collide in Agriburbia
The idea of a development that devotes its green space to farming food for its residents may sounds a little odd, but what if it could work? Farmstead, an Agriburbia being developed in North Carolina, acts as a good case study to explain how these communities function.
The marketing firm Claritas theorizes that the communities in which people live dramatically affect their purchasing habits and has developed a series of categories they call segments to define different demographic groups. Their website allows you to look up any zip code in the U.S. and find the set of consumers that live there.
When looking for volunteers for community development projects, it’s important not to overlook youth residents. Engaging in projects helps them learn new skills, while creating a better community for them to live in.