Neighborhood Services Organization, Inc.

NSO is aiming to impact Oklahoma's poor national rankings in oral health outcomes; child poverty; hunger and homelessness.

We help Oklahoma's most vulnerable populations by providing programs that first meet basic human needs, then focus on helping the individual achieve permanent, healthy independence. Healthy independence may look different for different individuals, but NSO uses evidence-based best practices to develop a case management plan for each client.

We offer our Keeping in Touch, or KIT, program to all the previous residents of our Transitional Living Programs (TLPs): Martha's House, Gatewood, and the Carolyn Williams Center. We maintain regular communication with them through phone calls, direct mail, and electronic communication to make sure their needs are being met and that they have access to services for which they qualify. We also work with individuals who are ready to begin transitioning out of our programs. We help them identify housing options and provide guidance on all aspects of living independently (bill paying, budgeting, and communication skills). We refer them to outside service partners and work with their landlord as needed. We run a low-income dental clinic to assist those who cannot afford to see a dentist. Homeless, single adults with a mental illness find shelter and safety at Palo Duro I and Palo Duro II, 22-unit and 14-unit apartment complexes that offer residents a permanent place to call home. We also run the largest WIC center in Oklahoma that serves about 7,000 mothers with infants per month.

Last year, we achieved a historic milestone: we touched the lives of Oklahomans in need 178,000 times. We served more Oklahomans than at any other point in our organization’s 100-year history through our housing, dental, and nutrition programs. Measurable outcomes and accomplishments include:

Housing: NSO housing programs continued to transform lives, despite COVID concerns. We served residents 365 days last year, providing extra support when needed and helping our residents navigate COVID cases. In all, our housing programs served 103 Oklahomans.

Martha’s House and Gatewood helped build stability in the lives of 15 moms and 24 children. Our Carolyn Williams Center (CWC) made sure 25 young men had a safe home, job connections, and support developing basic skills. And our Palo Duro program provided a home (and the gift of a family) for 39 unhoused adults with chronic mental illness. NSO’s rent and mortgage assistance program helped 70 families (178 individuals) avoid homelessness.

Dental: Over the past year, our Low-Cost Dental Clinic has continued to take a leading role in fighting back as COVID threatens to dismantle the progress we’ve made in helping Oklahomans build a healthy smile. In 2021, we served 1,500 patients, providing 11,000 procedures. And we made serious progress in expanding the efforts of our Oral Health Outreach Program - an effort that brings education, screenings, and oral health kits directly to the children, adults, and seniors who need them most. The Outreach Program served 42,354 people in 2021.

Nutrition: Our WIC Super-Clinic (the largest independent WIC clinic in Oklahoma) served 85,000 women and children in 2021. The Clinic’s goal is to provide women and their children under age five with supplemental nutrition and education. When COVID hit in 2020, many other clinics lacked the infrastructure to continue operations. The State of Oklahoma WIC turned to NSO, asking us to open our services (virtually) to women in all 77 Oklahoma counties. This was an effort we willingly continued in 2021.


What's next? Growing each of our programs more in order to serve more people every single year.