Pacific Community Solutions’ primary consultant and trainer is Ron Dwyer-Voss. Ron is considered an international expert on community development, community engagement, and nonprofit governance and management. A dynamic presenter and facilitator, he is a faculty member of the Asset-Based Community Development Institute at DePaul University. Ron trains, coaches, and consultants for NeighborWorks America and its many local affiliates and is a regular consultant to Habitat for Humanity International’s Neighborhood Revitalization program.
Ron founded Pacific Community Solutions in 2006 to support people, organizations, and agencies working to create positive social and economic change in their local communities. Pacific Community Solutions engages a variety of talented and engaging professional trainers and consultants when working on large projects, especially around youth leadership development, evaluation, and projects needing bilingual facilitators.
Ron began organizing social change in 1986 when he co-lead the Inter-Campus Sanctuary Network for Central American refugees and the successful South African divestment campaign at California Lutheran College. Later he worked in Chicago as a community economic development and housing specialist and as a community organizer in the Pilsen and Austin/West Garfield neighborhoods. Ron was trained and mentored in the 1990s by Jody Kretzmann of the ABCD Institute.
Ron later worked with rural communities throughout the western United States through Rural Community Assistance Corporation. There he led the design and implementation of the ground breaking California Agricultural Worker Health and Housing Program in collaboration with The California Endowment as well as dozens of local partners and farm-worker controlled organizations. As Deputy Director of Sacramento Mutual Housing Association Ron led an effort to develop local leaders throughout Sacramento’s poorest communities, combining traditional community organizing with Asset Based Community Development approaches.
Below is a partial list of organizations and agencies Pacific Community Solutions has worked with –
National/International Organizations
Asset Based Community Development Institute at DePaul University
NeighborWorks America, National Training Institute
NeighborWorks America, National Community Leadership Institute
Lead for America
Americorps
Habitat for Humanity International
ABCD International Festival, Bank of Ideas, Goa, India
NIRAS indevelop
Ford Foundation
Local Governments
City of Rancho Cordova (California)
City of Brighton (Colorado)
City of Chattanooga (Tennessee)
City of Norfolk (Virginia)
City of Lodi (California)
City of West Sacramento (California)
Placer Union High School District (California)
Natomas Unified School District (California)
Lincoln Public Schools (Nebraska)
Sacramento City Unified School District (California)
San Juan Unified School District (California)
Evanston Public Library
Louisiana Housing Corporation (Louisiana)
Oakton Community College (Illinois)
University of California, Davis (California)
San Jose State University (California)
Statewide/Regional Organizations and Associations
California School Boards Association
California Coalition for Rural Housing
Community Reach Center of Adams County (Colorado)
Lincoln Community Foundation
Louisiana Association of Nonprofit Organizations
Louisiana Housing Alliance
Graduate Theological Union/Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (National)
Episcopal Diocese of Northern California
Fresno Metro Ministries
Public Health Institute
Pacifica Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America
Edmonton and Area Child and Family Services Region 6 (Alberta, Canada)
Youth Development Network