Tuttle, North Dakota

Tuttle Rural Innovation Center

Problem

Too many rural towns don't have a clear "home base." People don't know where to go to plug in, get help, or meet others. The result: fragmentation, isolation, and duplicated effort.

Solution

The Tuttle Rural Innovation Center (TRIC) occupies the Tuttle public school, which closed in 2007 for lack of students, in a Kidder County town of 60 people (2020 census). Led by longtime school board member Burdell Johnson with Strengthen ND, it opened January 1, 2018 with a mission of using food, arts, entrepreneurship, training and community connection; it converted the cafeteria to a commercial kitchen, added offices and a woodworking shop, and received Bush Foundation Community Innovation grants in 2017 ($200,000) and 2020 ($206,000). No coverage after 2021 was found and its website is offline.

Patterns used: Community Anchor Point

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