The Purpose Prize Honor
Sharma named a 2013 Purpose Prize Fellow
Hilton Head, SC – Encore.org today announced that Narendra P. Sharma, from Hilton Head Island, SC, is a 2013 Purpose Prize fellow. The Purpose Prize is the country’s only large-scale investment in social entrepreneurs and other creative problem solvers in the second half of life.
Sharma was named a fellow because of his “out of the box” approach to tackling poverty locally. His bottom-up approach of connecting with and empowering people in low-income neighborhoods through education and health care is generating results, especially among children who are making strides academically.
NOC Receives National Coverage
Recognizing our flagship education program, development model, and success to date
NOC has recently received significant national attention regarding its flagship education program, development model, and success to date in low-income neighborhoods in Hilton Head Island and Bluffton. Three articles were written by Diana Furchtgott-Roth, a former chief economist of the U.S. Department of Labor and a senior fellow with the Manhattan Institute. Ms. Furchtgott-Roth visited Hilton Head Island and interviewed Dr. Narendra Sharma, founder and Chair, following a site visit to NOC’s program Center at Oaks in Hilton Head Island.
In her first article (“Unlearning World Bank Lessons To Fix Local Poverty”) in Real Clear Markets, Diana Furchtgott-Roth said “Almost everyone knows that Hilton Head Island is home to some of the most beautiful shoreline and golf courses on the eastern seaboard. Few know that the island also boasts a remarkable anti-poverty program for low-income families, one that needs to be considered for replication in poor neighborhoods from New York to Detroit to Oakland.” To understand why she has come to this conclusion, please click the link below.
In a second article (“Hilton Head offers a better way out of poverty than minimum wage hikes”) in Washington Examiner, Diana Furchtgott-Roth makes the case that poverty can be tackled through education, which empowers people. She uses NOC’s approach to validate her assertion. Click below to read this article.
washingtonexaminer.com/article/2534504
The third online article (“Making an investment in at-risk kids: Education is crucial to future success,”) in Wall Street’s Market Watch. Ms. Furchtgott-Roth discusses NOC’s successful development approach to educate at-risk children in the broader context of linking educational achievement to earnings and employment.” The article adds that “Students are in school 180 days a year, for 6 hours a day. Imagine how much more they could learn if educators could capture the remaining 185 days, or another six hours in a day, or both. That’s the philosophy behind … the Neighborhood Outreach Connection (NOC), based in Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. It provides low-income families with after-school and summer tutoring to stem the academic loss from empty summers and drab afternoons in low-income housing complexes…” To read more, click on the following link.
www.marketwatch.com/story/making-an-investment-in-at-risk-kids-2013-08-23
