NOC Learning Center Education Programs

Program Overview

Neighborhood Outreach Connection (NOC) operates 6 Learning Centers throughout Beaufort County, South Carolina. There are 2 NOC Learning Centers located in each of the following cities: Hilton Head, Bluffton, and Beaufort.

NOC provides education programs to children and adults. NOC maintains a presence in the neighborhoods and provides educational programming, such as:

• After-school (Pre-K through 8th grade)
• Summer School (Pre-K through 8th grade)
• Adult Education
• GED (English and Spanish)
• English as a Second Language
• Financial Literacy
• Workforce Development

Cost Info

Student and Volunteer Success Stories

Today, the Oaks, an apartment complex on Hilton Head Island (HHI), South Carolina, is a thriving neighborhood, enjoying stability, improved quality of life, and growth. The social transformation of the Oaks over the past 10 years is an excellent example of social entrepreneurship and community development, a model that can be replicated throughout the United States.

In 2008 crime was high and property values were low in the Oaks. Children received limited support outside the school to build skills in reading, math, and language arts. Residents of the Oaks did not have access to affordable health care or adult education. The Oaks was considered a crime-ridden, dysfunctional neighborhood by the HHI community. In 2018, the Neighborhood Outreach Connection (NOC) was invited to become involved at the Oaks. Over the past ten years, NOC, together with Oaks residents, owners, funders, and other service providers has worked to rebuild the Oaks through community development programs, and community engagement and activism.

Recognizing that people in this neighborhood wanted a better quality of life, NOC seized the opportunity to mobilize resources and community support to engender development. Dr. Narendra Sharma, Founder and Chair, realized that NOC could tap into the unrealized potential and social capital of this underserved neighborhood to promote economic and social progress.

NOC sought to establish a deeper level of trust and understanding with the people of the Oaks. NOC spent the first six months building trust and relationships with residents, listening to their needs and priorities. Dr. Sharma initiated this process to ensure that the needs of individuals would be heard, analyzed and developed into viable community projects for community development. Dr. Sharma realized that by bringing appropriate tools in the form of services, resources, technology, and know-how, NOC could be an agent of change and empowerment in the Oaks community.

The initial investment in the Oaks was important, one that did not involve traditional capital investment, but one of soft investment. Dr. Sharma spent days and weeks, enlisting a Spanish translator to go with him door to door in an effort to meet and gain the trust of the occupants of the 114 apartments in the Oaks, not knowing much of the time whether many occupants were too afraid or skeptical of his intentions to answer the door. But over time, trust was established and more residents began to show interest in NOC's outreach programs. During this period, Dr. Sharma learned that families were afraid and vulnerable, often subject to exploitation and abuse. They were not connected with the rest of the HHI community. But as tenants became more open and cooperative with Dr. Sharma, specific areas of need became more apparent.

As their first priority, residents wanted a playground and a small soccer play area. NOC provided materials and the residents built a playground and converted an unused tennis courts facility into a small area for soccer. It was a simple solution to a simple problem but in coming together for one project NOC was able to prove that for once someone was listening to their needs and that they had a voice. When they came together for a soccer game to celebrate the completion of their first project, there was the beginning of a sense that acting together gets positive results and outcomes. Finally, residents found happiness and personal fulfillment when they witnessed their children playing soccer safely.

NOC started its afterschool program with 5 children in a borrowed space in an apartment of a community family. Subsequently, NOC rented two one bedroom apartments in the Oaks so that they would have the capacity to serve more children and begin offering more services for adults to further advance the mission of transforming the community. When NOC later outgrew its original two rented apartments, NOC purchased two apartments in the Oaks to offer more services to more of the community; the residents showed their appreciation and commitment by gutting and renovating the apartments. Later, the VanLandingham Rotary Club of HHI donated an apartment equipped with over $20,000 worth of modern computers and other learning technology computers to serve as a virtual learning center, thus addressing the digital divide. The virtual learning center was equipped with. With three units in the Oaks, NOC was able to provide after school and summer learning programs for between 80 and 90 kids on any given day, exemplifying the true spirit of what Dr. Sharma had set out to achieve - a measurable impact in community development.

As the relationship intrinsically deepened and the increasing number of programs offered to the community became more vast and diverse, Dr. Sharma's original intentions started to become more evident and the four pillars of NOC's programming: Education, Workforce Development, Health Services and Connections began to fully reach the over 500 members of the Oaks community. Members of the community received free annual health screenings as NOC became advocates for the future of the Oaks' residents. NOC began offering adult classes including conversational English, computer skills, financial literacy, public safety, health, and wellness, and pre-natal care. The residents began to look to the future with more optimism and promise, knowing that with NOC's involvement they were now beginning to develop tools and skills that would truly lift them out of the poverty. Laura Hernandez, a past resident of the Oaks, reminisced on the formation of the relationship: "the whole community was really invested in NOC." She added that "most kids didn't have access to technology at home or support from their families to continue studying after school." She said that NOC brought in computers and certified teachers from the same schools the community's children attended, providing them with the best possible after school help, making sure that those lessons aligned with the school curriculum.

In social entrepreneurship, NOC was able to show people like Bernardo and Flor a road map to the American Dream that they sought. NOC helped Mr. Perez to attain the proper licenses and permits to establish his own construction business which continues to grow as a successful enterprise. Similarly, NOC helped Flor to establish an aerobics exercise program for low-income neighborhoods. This program has expended and is now generating income to Flor and her family. Furthermore, as a result of NOC's presence and by working closely with the residents and involving partner agencies, including the local law enforcement agency, by 2013 the number of Sheriff's response calls was one eighth of the level it had been when NOC had come to the Oaks, demonstrating a trend that would see crime continue to dwindle in the community.

The words of Oscar represents the profound effect that NOC has had on the Oaks community. (Translated from the original Spanish, in 2012 ): "...a vision through the NOC project to bring development and prosperity to our neighborhood through education...These barriers only encourage ignorance, backwardness, and separation that prevent human and community development...transform our neighborhood from a place that suffered from neglect, marginalization, and so many problems into a clean, healthy, and dignified place to live, a place where people have recovered confidence in themselves and in others...when the community works together in an organized way, it can achieve great things and big changes can occur that benefit each and every one...proudly see that the neighborhood has a new face...general community receives education and care that are bridges to get people out of backwardness and darkness. These achievements have brought us dignity and hope for a better future. Thank you, Dr. Sharma, for believing in this project and for believing in us."

Over time, hardworking families who wanted their children to have a better chance at a good education began moving into the Oaks neighborhood. Children living in the Oaks continue to participate in NOC's after school and summer programs. These children show academic improvements consistently in math, reading, and language arts. The playground and the soccer facility, created by NOC, have given children a play area that has kept them productively occupied. Youth problems have declined sharply. Drug dealers and prostitutes have left the complex and the crime rate has come down. Oaks is now an attractive complex where property values have risen significantly (apartments are now selling for over $75,000) and the Home Owners Association has built a strong financial reserve. A community center has been refurbished for use by the Oaks community. There is pride in the community and a sense of accomplishment. In December of 2018, for the first time, the community was able to hold their own Christmas party, organized and paid by the families. Today, the Oaks has truly become a community transformed and where there was once an at risk population there is now a thriving community.

From the Oaks, NOC has gone on to serve more than 650 students at six separate learning centers in Beaufort County with more than 95% of students in NOC's programs showing progress and improved scores on their reading and math standardized tests. Staying true to the original intent of the model, 85% of NOC's funding goes directly to programming efforts at an average cost of less than $1,200 per student annually across those six centers. NOC has also worked with health partners to screen more than 2,000 people in low-income areas. Furthermore, since Dr. Sharma began his work at the Oaks NOC, which started with just one community, has now reached over 5,000 people through its workforce development and community events.

The effort that Dr. Sharma and NOC have invested in the Oaks has paid dividends in the form of a community both empowered and united behind the belief that they were and are in control of their own destinies. Because of this initial success, NOC has been able to expand efforts to numerous other neighborhoods in Hilton Head, Bluffton and Beaufort. NOC is now poised to replicate its development approach and business model throughout South Carolina and beyond throughout the country.