Our market stand is now open!

The Community Design Center's Garden Corps youth interns will sell their local, sustainably raised herbs, vegetables and flowers at their market stand near our office every Saturday morning, from 9 am until noon, through August 22, 2009. The stand is located at the corner of East 7th Street and Bates Avenue in the Dayton's Bluff neighborhood of St. Paul, adjacent to our office at 731 East 7th Street.

Youth interns will also operate a weekly stand for several weeks at the Mill City Farmers Market on the river in Minneapolis, beginning on Saturday, August 29, 2009. For more information, please call 651-228-7073.

Community Design Center of Minnesota

Photo: Children’s Garden at 3rd and Maria

Dayton's Bluff Children's Garden at 3rd & Maria

Photo: Working at the Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary

Working at the Bruce Vento Nature Sanctuary

Photo: Family Cooking Classes

Family Cooking Class at local elementary school

Photo: Kids planting at a Community Garden

Local school children planting the Bates Avenue Raingarden

Community Design Center of Minnesota is a Saint Paul-based organization whose mission is to help revitalize low-to-moderate income communities by providing technical assistance and operating programs that will enhance the physical, economic, social, ecological, and spiritual well being of the community and its residents. We believe that building and renewing a community requires a holistic approach that creates long-term sustainable change.

Today we operate children's and youth programs on the East Side of St. Paul aimed at engaging young people in the civic life of their community as well as providing them with experiences that enrich their lives and develop important life skills.

Our programs are based on the following principles:

  1. Children and youth are resources and citizens, not clients.
  2. Communities work better when self-help is the model.
  3. The strength of a neighborhood depends on the opportunities it creates for the young to become involved in a variety of aspects of community life.
  4. Youth thrive when their experience gives them a sense of place and belonging and new skills.
  5. Our physical environment forms our thinking.
  6. Young people's respect for themselves and for their community depends on local adults modeling responsibility and achievement.
  7. We create healthy and thriving community through collaborative partnerships.

Spring 2009 Newsletter

Download our Spring 2009 newsletter: cdc_newsletter-4-2009.pdf (456 KB PDF)

Thanks to Allegra Print & Imaging in St. Paul for their generously discounted printing of our newsletter.

The Community Design Center of Minnesota is proud to be a host site and partner for the City of St. Paul's Youth Job Corps. We are grateful for the support this program provides for our youth internships.