Today we’d like to introduce you to Neighborhood Outreach Connection.
Hi Neighborhood Outreach Connection, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Neighborhood Outreach Connection (NOC) began with a simple personal realization: the challenges we often associate with communities locally and around the world—poverty, income inequality, and lack of opportunity for economic and social progress—were also present here in Hilton Head Island, Bluffton and Beaufort City in Beaufort County, SC.
Our founder, Dr. Narendra Sharma, spent decades working in international development at The World Bank before turning his focus locally. When he saw the growing needs within underserved neighborhoods on Hilton Head Island and Beaufort County, he knew meaningful change had to start at the local level.
In 2008, NOC was founded with the mission of enhancing the quality of life for individuals, working families, and underserved communities living in poverty by empowering them to achieve economic independence, personal fulfillment, and self-reliance. Its guiding mantra— “to teach people how to fish”, empowering people and building trust and relationships with them—has shaped the organization’s approach from the beginning. Dr. Sharma’s vision was to create a viable business model to fight poverty, a model that generated results and could be replicated locally, nationally, and at a global level to lift people out of poverty.
NOC began in a small, underserved community on Hilton Head Island, operating out of borrowed space in The Oaks, an apartment complex where residents were facing significant social and economic challenges. Dr. Sharma went door to door, listening to families and learning about their needs. In response to their request, he brought together local community members to help build a playground for the children. Working side by side with the residents created an early foundation of partnership, trust, and connection.
From that starting point, NOC launched its first program—afterschool education—with five children. Within a short period of time, NOC implemented its health and wellness, and workforce community development programs. Today, the organization operates six learning centers across Beaufort County, serving more than 750 low-income children each year through its academic and enrichment programs.
What made NOC different from the beginning was its business model. Instead of asking families to come to us, we brought programs directly into the communities where they lived. That meant removing barriers like transportation, cost, and access, while also building trust and connection with families over time. This development approach laid the foundation of NOC’s success and platform to expand its outreach program throughout Beaufort County, SC.
From those early days, NOC grew one relationship, one student, one neighborhood at a time. Expanding beyond after-school tutoring to include health and wellness programs, and workforce and community development programs. Today, we have served over 20,000 people in these programs making a larger impact on our local communities in Beaufort County, SC.
Today, NOC operates six learning centers across Hilton Head, Bluffton, and Beaufort, serving hundreds of students and families each year with plans for further expansion into the greater Bluffton and Jasper County, SC (focusing on Hardeeville and Ridgeland). While the organization has grown, the heart of the work remains the same: meeting people where they are and involving them in the fine tuning of programs, implementation, and in volunteer service and support.
NOC is recognized for its strong commitment to efficient use of its financial resources, transparency, and financial integrity. About 90% of NOC’s annual budget is directed to programs benefiting the people served. NOC operates with a small overhead cost with an active Board. In 2025, NOC earned Platinum Status from Candid/GuideStar and four stars from Charity Navigator, which is the highest level of recognition for nonprofits in terms of financial transparency and accountability and publicly sharing detailed information about their finances, impact, and operations.
NOC prioritizes accountability by ensuring donors and community partners can see how resources are used to support its mission. Since its inception, NOC has also engaged an independent auditor to review its financials annually, providing an added layer of oversight, accountability, and trust. NOC is committed to earning and maintaining the confidence of the community it serves.
At its core, NOC is a grass-root community-based effort with a continued commitment to ensuring that every child, individual, and family has access to the support and opportunities they deserve, thereby lifting themselves out of poverty.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
As a grassroots organization, NOC’s journey has been purposeful, innovative and meaningful, as well as challenging.
In the early years, one of the biggest challenges was simply building trust and relationships with the people served. NOC was working within underserved communities that had every reason to be cautious of outside organizations because of previous experiences and failed programs. Establishing relationships with families took time, consistency, and a genuine commitment to showing up day after day. Growth couldn’t be rushed. It had to be earned.
Funding has also been an ongoing challenge in a competitive environment for funds for community services. As a local nonprofit, NOC has had to continuously navigate the uncertainty of grants, donations, and limited resources while trying to meet increasing community needs. Demand for NOC’s community services has grown rapidly over the past 19 years.
The current political, economic, and social climate has also emerged as a challenge for NOC to implement its outreach programs. Rising costs, lack of affordable housing, movement and relocation of working families, and economic uncertainty have increased the problems (including the level of stress) faced by working families in underserved neighborhoods in Beaufort County, SC
Operationally, expansion has come with its own set of challenges as noted above, but it has allowed NOC to be more adaptive and flexible to situations. Opening and sustaining multiple learning centers across Beaufort County means managing staffing, volunteers, transportation, facilities, and programming—all while generating positive results and outcomes and maintaining the quality and consistency the people we serve rely on.
In recent years, rising community service needs, staffing challenges, and financial needs have pushed NOC to grow stronger, innovative, and more adaptable. Through it all, NOC has remained grounded in its vision and mission of empowering those in need. The process is set in thoughtful, strategic decisions that focus on long-term sustainability while staying true to our mission and core programs and impact that matter most to the children, individuals, and families we serve.
But through each of these challenges, what has remained constant over the past nineteen years is NOC’s commitment to community development. Every obstacle has helped refine the model, strengthen partnerships, and deepen the organization’s understanding of what families truly need locally to enjoy a better quality of life.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
At NOC, the mission is simple yet powerful: ensure that children, individuals, and families in underserved communities have access to the opportunities they need to thrive. This work is grounded in our business model that focuses on three core areas—education and enrichment, health and wellness, and workforce and community development—because lasting change happens when the whole family is supported.
What sets NOC apart is its neighborhood-based approach: Rather than expecting families to overcome barriers like transportation, cost, or access, NOC brings its programs directly into the communities it serves through strategically placed Learning Centers. This proximity allows staff to build meaningful relationships, remain consistently present, and respond to the needs of individuals and families.
Through these centers, students from Pre-K through 8th grade receive afterschool academic support, enrichment opportunities, and summer programming in small, relationship-driven settings. NOC utilizes teachers from local schools, technology, and volunteers to implement its academic and enrichment programs. Beyond academics, NOC integrates health and wellness initiatives that support both physical and emotional well-being. At the same time, workforce and community development efforts connect adults and families to job training, resources, and pathways toward long-term economic stability.
NOC’s approach is intentionally long-term. The organization recognizes that helping individuals and families move out of poverty is a journey that can take 10-15 years. Each program serves as a piece of a larger strategy designed to create stability, opportunity, and change.
Central to this work is a commitment to relationships. NOC is not simply delivering services; it is part of the community. Staff know the students, their families, and their unique challenges. This trust allows NOC to support the child and the family in ways that more traditional models often cannot.
Health and wellness remain a key part of this work. NOC provides free preventive health screenings ( ) and educational workshops within neighborhoods, helping uninsured and underinsured residents overcome barriers to care and make informed decisions about their health. These efforts are strengthened through partnerships with organizations such as Beaufort Memorial Hospital, Volunteers in Medicine, South Carolina Department of Public Health, Novant Health, and Lions Clubs International, expanding the reach and impact of services across the region.
All NOC programs are offered on a 100% scholarship basis, ensuring that cost is never a barrier. At the same time, families are active partners in the process—students commit to consistent participation, and parents stay engaged through ongoing communication and involvement. This shared responsibility fosters mutual respect, empowerment, and a strong sense of community.
Even as it grows, NOC remains deeply centered in the community. Each Learning Center is tailored to reflect the specific needs of its neighborhood, rather than following a one-size-fits-all model. This flexibility allows the organization to stay responsive, relevant, and impactful.
Through this integrated, relationship-based approach, NOC is helping families overcome barriers, build stability, and create brighter futures. Our approach strengthens not just individual lives, but the community as a whole.
How do you think about happiness?
What brings NOC the greatest sense of purpose is seeing lives changed and lifting individuals and families out of poverty while expanding our reach to serve more students, individuals, and families each day.
It’s the transformation of a community once marked by high crime and instability like The Oaks on Hilton Head Island into a place of connection, safety, and opportunity. Through NOC’s community development efforts and strong partnerships over a 12-year period, more than one million dollars has been invested to revitalize this neighborhood, creating spaces and pathways where residents can truly thrive.
It’s the moment a student who has struggled in school begins to gain confidence and realize they can succeed. It’s watching a child improve in reading or math and then carry that confidence back into the classroom. It’s seeing students take pride in their behavior, support one another, and begin to believe in their own potential.
It’s also about ensuring that those who might otherwise go without care receive the support they need. Through preventive health screenings and education, lives are being changed like the mother whose breast cancer was detected early, giving her access to treatment, hope, and a future she might not have had otherwise.
It’s also the relationships. NOC is rooted in the communities it serves, so happiness comes from the trust built with families over time. When parents feel comfortable reaching out, when they show up to events, and when they become partners in their child’s success it means we have mutual respect and dignity.
Beyond students, it’s the broader impact on families and the community. Whether it’s helping connect someone to resources, providing a safe and supportive environment for children after school, or seeing former students come back to volunteer. It’s seeing and hearing from the families they are starting their own business, their child is in college, they are buying their first home. These moments reflect something bigger taking shape.
At its core, what makes NOC happiest is simple: knowing the work is making a meaningful difference—one child, one family, one community at a time.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://noc-sc.org
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NeighborhoodOutreachConnection
