| Danville Community College (DCC) in Danville, Virginia, will be using a 2000 Community Outreach Partnership Centers (COPC) grant to expand the community outreach efforts that it has already initiated in three of the city's low-income neighborhoods. The college established Neighborhood Educational Opportunity Centers (NEOC) in the city's Camp Grove and North Main neighborhoods, and the Liberty View public housing community with funds from the Ford Foundation and the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation. The COPC grant will allow the college to expand programming in these centers and help individual centers meet the goals established by their Community Advisory Councils.
Through their local NEOCs, residents of the COPC target neighborhoods gain access to education, job training and placement, leadership development, and assistance with neighborhood revitalization and economic development.
Crime, drugs, poverty, and illiteracy plague all three targeted communities. However, all three have also experienced some degree of revitalization during the past few years that has helped improve the local infrastructure and provide a greater sense of neighborhood safety and community pride. To capitalize on these improvements, DCC will work with all three centers to bring the college's technical resources into the community, provide education and job training opportunities, and offer leadership training for adults and youth.
The NEOC in Camp Grove, a low-income neighborhood of 500 residents, has served as a model for DCC's other centers. The college is working with Camp Grove Baptist Church, the Camp Grove Neighborhood Association, and other area churches to operate the center, which features a 12-computer technology lab. The college's Center for Business, Industry, and Government provides computer classes on site. Its Marketing, and Small Business and Entrepreneurship students will work with the Camp Grove Advisory Council to develop a business plan for a senior citizen housing complex in the neighborhood.
The Danville Redevelopment and Housing Authority asked DCC to establish the NEOC at Liberty View, a 232-resident public housing project. The center features an on-site computer lab and offers counseling services. Similar services will be available at the North Main NEOC, which is a collaboration of DCC and the Salvation Army.
DCC, established in 1967, serves an area commonly referred to as Southside Virginia, which includes Danville, Pittsylvania County, and Halifax County. The college is located near the North Carolina line, 50 miles northeast of Greensboro, North Carolina, and 90 miles southwest of Roanoke, Virginia.
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