South Dakota State University
EN-10: Community Partnerships

FY20, FY21, FY22
Tribal Local Foods Program training in sustainable agriculture and food production on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. This is a collaborative effort with Re-Member. SDSU Extension leases office space from them so that they can have a physical presence on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Extension collaborates with them on teaching garden and high tunnel demonstration space at this location – using some of their land for the teaching garden and high tunnel demonstrations.

FY20
The Local Food Education Center worked with communities in the southern Black Hills (based in Igloo, SD) to design a geothermal-based greenhouse that will serve the low-income population.

FY20 and FY21
Prof. Don Burger conducts assessments as a part of his City Planning class (LA 342). The work is sponsored through an annual grant from the South Dakota Department of Health (SDDOH), and is a partnership between SDDOH, SDSU’s Landscape Architecture program, and one or two target communities in South Dakota per year. The University provides students and a faculty member to help with this work. Since 2013 they have completed assessments for the following SD communities:
• Huron
• Mitchell
• Fort Pierre
• Volga
• Salem
• Sioux Falls
• Harrisburg
• Crooks
• Burke
• Tripp

After conducting walkability assessments and meeting with community members to discuss problem areas, the students work with the professor to develop recommendations for improving walkability in the target community. Those recommendations are vetted with community members throughout the project, and then presented in a community open house at the end of the semester. The team does their best to include underrepresented/vulnerable groups. The team tries to ensure that representation from all segments of society is provided during the information gathering and open house phases.

The partnership simultaneously supports all three dimensions of sustainability. The project promotes wellbeing for residents (active transportation through walking and cycling) while fostering economic prosperity (development of walking destinations such as corner stores, cafes, and other small businesses); one of the desired outcomes is less dependence on motor vehicles, thus reducing ecological impacts of urban places.

FY20
Local Foods Education Center
•Donations to Feeding Brookings, Food Pantry, and Harvest Table
•The Local Food Education Center collaborated with a gated community in South Dakota to design and build a greenhouse and high tunnel for sustainably grown produce. Through the project, both the gated community members and local non-profits received produce.
•The Local Food Education Center collaborates with the local Boys and Girls club to teach the students how to grow food.

Pack the Pantry occurs each year. It is a friendly competition between SDSU units and departments to see who can donate the most items to the Jack's Cupboard.

Brookings urban stormwater management study; 1-year grant from California Landscape Architecture Student Scholarship (CLASS) Fund and matching funds from Eastern Dakota Water Development District to study ways to reduce stormwater runoff and improve water runoff quality through investment in green stormwater infrastructure throughout the city. This has led to the installation of a rain garden at the Brookings Boys and Girls Club Teen Center in Sept 2020, and a rain barrel distribution program in April-June 2020. Community open houses and input sessions were held throughout 2019-2020 where all segments of the Brookings community were invited to give input on vision. This also reduces ecological impacts of stormwater pollutants in surface waters.

SDSU Extension
•Sinte Gleska University - This effort takes place in the community of Mission on the Rosebud Indian Reservation
•Implemented the Stock Healthy, Shop Healthy Grocery Store Education Project in Dupree, SD (Cheyenne River Indian Reservation)
•Implemented the Dakota Double Up Food Bucks Education program on the Cheyenne River and Standing Rock Indian Reservations. This program encourages the purchase of fresh produce for SNAP users .
•Community Gardens managed through Community Wellness Coalitions that are facilitated by SDSU Extension on the Yankton Sioux, Rosebud, Pine Ridge, Lower Brule, Crow Creek, Cheyenne River and Standing Rock Indian Reservations.

Health & Nutritional Sciences Department
•USDA NIFA-funded project entitled, ‘Voices for Food: Utilizing Food Policy Councils to Bridge the Gap between Food Security and Healthy Food Choices.’ As part of this research, six states (Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, and South Dakota) have combined efforts to implement an integrated community-based model in diverse rural food deserts to enhance food security among low-resource adults.
•Researchers and Extension staff from South Dakota State University completed mapping of retail and charitable food locations (food access points) in South Dakota and engaged stakeholders in providing input about food access in several communities.

Pat Crawford
1. Trail Ridge Senior Living Community. Community Trail Visioning Engagement Process and Design Development. 2019. Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
2. EPA Technical Assistance to Brownfields Blue Rapids, KS Community ReVisioning. 2019.
3. EPA Technical Assistance to Brownfields Herrington, KS Community ReVisioning. 2019.

For 2 and 3 from Pat Crawford: The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA) Brownfields Amendments authorize EPA to provide funding to organizations to conduct research and to provide training and technical assistance to communities to help address their brownfields challenges. The Technical Assistance to Brownfields (TAB) Program provides technical assistance to communities and stakeholders to help address their brownfield sites, and to increase their understanding and involvement in brownfields cleanup, revitalization and reuse. The TAB Program is funded by EPA and available to all stakeholders. TAB grant recipients (also known as TAB providers) serve as an independent resource and can provide expert technical assistance and guidance to help communities, among other things, understand:
•acquiring, assessing, cleaning up and redeveloping brownfield properties;
•the health impacts of brownfield sites;
•how science and technology are used for site assessment, remediation, redevelopment and reuse; and
•how to comply with voluntary cleanup requirements.

School of American & Global Studies
- SD Voices for Peace is a state non-profit working on grassroots empowerment and building strategic allyship as well as countering top down legislated hate and fear-mongering against Muslims, immigrants and refugees in SD. Working on both ends of the social change continuum, we strive to live out our vision “to create a SD where the fabric is rich, diverse and inclusive.”.
- SD Dream Coalition is a grassroots coalition of immigrant advocacy groups in the state.

Natural Resource Department
The NRM department, by nature, looks at the maintenance and repair of ecosystems and natural resources. Many groups come to NRM asking for help. Partnerships are usually ongoing, financial help varies, and inclusion of underrepresented groups is dependent on their partner.

Advanced Energy Systems is partnering with students to reuse lithium batteries for electric golf carts. The students are specifically researching how to attach a solar panel and controls to a golf carts so the battery can charge while being used on the green.

FY21
SDSU Extension
•Sinte Gleska University - This effort takes place in the community of Mission on the Rosebud Indian Reservation
•Implemented the Dakota Double Up Food Bucks Education program on the Cheyenne River and Standing Rock Indian Reservations. This program encourages the purchase of fresh produce for SNAP users at local grocery stores .
•Community Gardens managed through Community Wellness Coalitions that are facilitated by SDSU Extension on the Yankton Sioux, Rosebud, Pine Ridge, Lower Brule, Crow Creek, Cheyenne River and Standing Rock Indian Reservations.

Local Foods Education Center
•Donations to Feeding Brookings, Food Pantry, and Harvest Table
•The Local Food Education Center collaborated with a gated community in South Dakota to design and build a greenhouse and high tunnel for sustainably grown produce. Through the project, both the gated community members and local non-profits received produce.
•The Local Food Education Center collaborates with the local Boys and Girls club to teach the students how to grow food.
Transportation Services: For two weeks in November, Transportation services allows people to donate canned goods for a discount on their parking ticket. Around 500 pounds of food were donated this year.

Architecture department:
1: Premier by Design: South Campus Neighborhood Re-visioning (Pat Crawford & Lynn Sargent)
Design visioning for the neighborhood south of campus, including housing inventory, complete street design, stormwater management and campus entry experience.

2: EPA Technical Assistance to Brownfields Consultant 2018-present (Pat Crawford)
Consultation services for EPA-TAB for creation of community design visions for brownfield sites. Includes community engagement and development of design vision renderings.

3: SD Watershed Planning Assessment 2021-present (Jeremiah Bergstrom)
The Landscape Architecture Program at South Dakota State University in collaboration with SDSU Extension and the Department of Sociology & Rural Studies is proposing to conduct an assessment of watershed planning needs in eastern South Dakota communities. Little research or effort has focused on needs of small communities as a majority of work supports larger communities (>10,000) working to meet EPA Phase 2 stormwater regulations. This assessment will focus on communities with a population of less than 10,000 residents to determine their baseline capacity for managing watersheds and nonpoint source pollution in the human-built environment. The partners propose to interview a select number of community leaders and representatives while developing sampling and survey tools that will verify and validate community values through surveys. This assessment will provide a preliminary overview of watershed values and nonpoint source pollution issues in the built environment and culminate in a regional symposium to gain input on the project approach and process while establishing a framework for a proposed community-based watershed planning toolkit. With technical guidance and resources, communities can begin to manage and improve watershed conditions through a local bottom-up approach without a regulatory mandate. The final work product will include an outline for the toolkit along with a needs assessment to guide and direct the development of relevant resources.

4: DSTDFI and Fellowship Chapel Detroit, MI Green Infrastructure Concept Designs 2021-present (Pat Crawford & Jeremiah Bergstrom)
SDSU is assisting a local nonprofit community group and religious organization in developing concepts for green stormwater infrastructure on their properties. The City of Detroit has instituted a stormwater fee program that has significantly impacted these organizations. The fee is calculated based on impervious cover from existing parking and rooftop areas. These areas generate significant stormwater runoff that contribute to flooding and combined sewer overflows in the City. By implementing green stormwater practices these entities can reduce their annual stormwater fees, protect existing infrastructure, and improve the quality of waterways in the community.

5: Resilient New Jersey Community Primer 2021-present (Jeremiah Bergstrom)
SDSU is collaborating with Rutgers University to develop a community primer that will serve as a guide for communities throughout New Jersey impacted by flooding. This guidance document will assist municipal leaders and technical professionals in restoring ecological function to flood prone landscapes as they work to make their communities more resilient. It will serve as a critical tool that can facilitate decision-making between political leadership, first-responders, public works managers, and residents. This work builds on past experiences of the researchers providing an overview of basic restoration ecology principles, as well as specific methods and techniques for planning and implementing a successful ecologically-based approach to the restoration of flood prone landscapes.

Dr. Reinaldo Tonkoski has a working relationship with Sandia National Lab.

Agronomy, Horticulture, and Plant Science Department: The Food Pod - this has been a partnership between the Children's Museum and our department.

Residential Life and the Sustainability Specialist hosted Don't Dump! Donate! during finals week. As students moved out of the dorms for the summer, there was a collection point for students to drop off used, but good condition items for various local non-profits. Donation items included, but were not limited to furniture, carpet, hygiene items, office supplies, clothes, and food. The non-profit partners included Habitat for Humanity ReStore, Brookings Domestic Abuse Shelter, SDSU Jack's Cupboard, and Share the Warmth. FY21 was the 3rd year Don’t Dump! Donate! was offered. Over 2,000 pounds of items were donated to the local community. This program supports all three pillars of sustainability by keeping reusable material from the landfill, supporting organizations who take care of vulnerable citizens, and providing usable material at a price that more people can afford.


FY22
The NRM department, by nature, looks at the maintenance and repair of ecosystems and natural resources. Many groups come to NRM asking for help. Partnerships are usually ongoing, financial help varies, and inclusion of underrepresented groups is dependent on their partner.

Residential Life and the Sustainability Specialist hosted Don't Dump! Donate! during finals week. As students moved out of the dorms for the summer, there was a collection point for students to drop off used, but good condition items for various local non-profits. Donation items included, but were not limited to furniture, carpet, hygiene items, office supplies, clothes, and food. The non-profit partners included Habitat for Humanity ReStore, Brookings Domestic Abuse Shelter, SDSU Jack's Cupboard, and Share the Warmth. FY22 was the 4th year Don’t Dump! Donate! was offered. Over 4,000 pounds of items were donated to the local community. This program supports all three pillars of sustainability by keeping reusable material from the landfill, supporting organizations who take care of vulnerable citizens, and providing usable material at a price that more people can afford.