LeBron James Family Foundation’s I PROMISE Village Revealed To Help Students And Families

Transcript

00:00 I'm Melissa Rowland with Sports Illustrated and we're here with Jill Painter-Lopez.

00:06 Now LeBron James and his foundation helped build a village to support transitional housing

00:12 for the families of students who attend his I Promise School.

00:15 Tell us a little bit about why he decided to do this and what the village looks like.

00:20 Well, Melissa, LeBron James didn't just open a public school in 2018 in his hometown of

00:25 Akron, Ohio.

00:26 He is very involved and one of the things that they're noticing with these at-risk students

00:31 is that some of the families are at risk as well, including if the family, if one of the

00:36 parents or a grandparent has lost their job or is dealing with domestic violence or many

00:41 challenges that many families face and especially during the pandemic even more.

00:46 So one of the things he, along with his foundation members, decided to do was to build a place

00:52 for transitional housing that of no cost to the families where they could be at peace

00:57 and relax and figure out what they were going to be doing during this transitional time.

01:01 So just a lovely thing that they're doing.

01:04 If you saw, it was about 23 sponsors that got on board, including Graduate Hotels.

01:10 They renovated an existing building rather in Akron that had been around since 1923 and

01:15 it's just awesome to see all the pictures of the rooms, the motivational signs that

01:20 are up, a playground in the backyard for the kids with, I thought the motto was pretty

01:26 great called, It Takes a Village.

01:27 So LeBron James just continuing to do good things.

01:30 He doesn't just stand pat with the things he does.

01:33 He adds to them and helps out and I think that's so wonderful and he definitely is giving

01:38 meaning to, he is not just shutting up and dribbling.