Our speaker today was Ron Dotzler with his wife Twany in attendance.  Ron Dotzler and Twany Dotzler met in college in Missouri, were married in 1980 and have 14 children.  For 8 years out of college Ron worked as a successful Chemical Engineer in the computer industry. In 1988 he and his family moved into the inner city community of north Omaha and founded Abide, a 501c3 non-profit. Ron is the founder and Board President of Abide. Ron and his family have worked with many people facing helpless, homeless and hopeless situations and their work has produced amazing inner city transformation. Ron has also done extensive travel developing leaders and working with organizations in India, China, Haiti, Africa (South Africa, Kenya, Sudan), Germany, Spain, Italy, Yugoslavia (Macedonia), Argentina and Mexico.

 

Abide’s vision that one day Omaha, Nebraska would have no inner city will be achieved through the deliberate and consistent focus on our mission: To transform the inner city, one neighborhood at a time.

Our one-neighborhood-at-a-time strategy gets to the core of a successful community – the family.  We recognize that resident stakeholders must participate in decisions to be able to get sustainable change to happen. Abide’s programs and community events help get the entire family engaged.

Abide uses a holistic approach that focuses on developing healthy neighborhoods through four main areas:  Family Support, Community Building, Housing and Partnerships.

In the photo above, Ron shows a map showing a red dot for each murder in Omaha.  His program works in the middle of the most dense murder area  Members desiring more information can go to www.abideomaha.org for an expanded explanation.