CASE STUDY
CAAP Community Vitality Grant
Grant and program design for high-impact investment in communities around the Capitol.
CLIENT: Capitol Area Architecture and Policy Board (CAAPB)
Key Points
The Capitol Area Architecture and Policy Board (CAAPB) engaged SDK to conduct research and make recommendations for design of their first of its kind Community Vitality Grants program. The CAAPB’s Community Vitality Grants will distribute $1.5 million to the CAAPB Area at a time when the Capitol Area will also see an unprecedented $30 million in investments in infrastructure over the next six years. SDK provided recommendations on topics of focus, examples of successful programs both local and national, and structure of governance.
Client Need
After receiving $5 Million from the State Legislature for a Community Vitality Grant program to improve the area surrounding the State Capitol, the CAAPB needed guidance on structuring the portion of the program that would give grants directly to the diverse neighborhood surrounding the Capitol, which has a history of underinvestment and lack of local ownership.
SDK Contributions
SDK conducted research and used our expertise to create recommendations on how the Community Vitality Grants would be distributed. We worked in close coordination with a subgroup of legislators and community members involved with the Capitol Area Vitality Task Force to design the program. Efforts included case research and interviews with leaders of successful programs, both local and national, to learn more about what made these programs a success and allowed them to make a difference in their communities. SDK also brought forward cases of collaborative formation and community engagement to advise the Work Group and CAAPB staff. These examples were presented to the subgroup, who chose three specific topic areas for improvement: Art, Business and Home Ownership. SDK also proposed a phased approach to fund distribution to maximize infrastructure investments.
Finally, SDK provided recommendations on the oversight for the overall program, specifically: using intermediaries for disbursement, selecting a 7-member selection committee from the community for governance to ensure ongoing attention to the community as these larger investments were made to the Capitol Mall and Rice Street, and stressed the importance of using this grant to help fight the gentrification of the area and build the existing community.
These recommendations were presented to the overall CAAPB, who approved the fund design in 2024, allowing the CAAPB and the City of St. Paul to begin investing in the community.
“SDK Communications leadership and staff provided incredible guidance on this challenging project due to their ability to step-up quickly on research for program types that the Task Force wanted as examples. The expertise SDK brought to CAAPB and the Task Force with their years of experience working on projects such as this Task Force and its charge to help determine how $5m should be spent to help increase vitality in the Capitol Area neighborhood, helped instill a sense of trust and confidence in the path the Task Force is recommending.” - Erik Cedarleaf Dahl, Executive Director, CAAPB