LeBron James expands I Promise School project, includes transitional housing for at-risk students

Jeff Zillgitt | USA TODAY

Shortly after LeBron James’ I Promise School opened in Akron, Ohio, Michele Campbell, the executive director of James’ charitable foundation, identified a pressing need: transitional housing for students and their families who are going through traumatic experiences.

“Some are homeless, some live in shelters and we have a student who was the victim of a gun invasion in their home and watched his brother get shot and a cousin get shot and die and he had to go back in that home," Campbell said. "It was terrifying for him. I was unsure how we were going to provide housing. I knew we wanted to do it. I didn’t know how we would do it."

Enter Graduate Hotels and CEO Ben Weprin. He knows James and his business partners Maverick Carter and Randy Mims and took a tour of the I Promise School in May.

“I met Michele and her team and was incredibly inspired and blown away by the mission and the execution – just the overall vision of the I Promise School,” Weprin said. “It was an eye-opener in their ability to dream something so big and then do it and will it to life.”

Weprin’s wife, Mary Ann, visited the school two weeks later, and they wanted to know how they could help. Campbell's answer? Housing. Weprin got to work and partnered with the I Promise School to purchase an historic Akron apartment building and create the I Promise Village by Graduate Hotels.

“Initially, our work was focused on helping these kids earn an education. But we’ve found that it is impossible to help them learn if they are struggling to survive, if they are hungry, if they have no heat in the freezing winter, if they live in fear for their safety,” James said in a statement to USA TODAY Sports and other outlets. “We want this place to be their home where they feel safe, supported, and loved, knowing we are right there with them every step of the way as they get back on their feet.”

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James knows this situation well. In fourth grade, he missed 83 days of school in part because he didn’t have permanent or even transitional housing. He and his mother Gloria moved at least a half dozen times that school year.

The I Promise School opened in 2018 and now has 343 students in grades third through fifth with plans to expand to eighth grade by the 2021-22 school year. Beyond providing education to students, the school also offers parental resources such as food, clothing, legal aid, medical care, mental health assistance, financial literacy, mentors and GED classes.

Campbell sees the impact these traumatic environments have on a student’s ability to learn.

“If you’re coming to school and you were on the street or in a shelter and coming to school and placed in a classroom to learn about math or read books, there is no way those children can focus on learning,” she said.

“Because they’re frustrated and scared about what’s happening at home, what we are seeing, especially from young children who don’t understand how to connect all of those dots, when they put a book in front of them, that’s when we’re seeing behaviors act out. They don’t know how to necessarily verbalize they’re frustrated or scared."

“In a typical school, when behaviors act out, there’s punitive response and you just push it deeper and deeper. We’re trying to understand what behavior is linked to and find the solution. We knew we can help the behavior, help the family and help the student learn."

The boutique hotelier, which specializes in creating hotel space in college towns, will renovate and furnish the living units. The building will open officially in July, but Campbell said, "The reality is that we will be able to get in that building as early as the third week of January and if I had a family that was in desperate need, we would move them in while doing construction in another area.

"We will be able to fill those units just knowing off the top of my head certain families and what’s going."

When conversations with Weprin escalated, Campbell told him exactly what she had in mind: a building within walking distance of the school. Weprin and his team took it one step further and found a building on the same side of the street so students wouldn’t have to cross a busy road.

“I Promise School gives people exposure, hope and promise of a better tomorrow and showing people what is out there and what is possible,” Weprin said. “We want to create an environment of storytelling and a building that is safe, clean and comfortable and inspiring for the folks staying there and let them know someone cares about them and their value. It’s a humbling opportunity for us to be part of that journey.”

School officials will work with families to find permanent housing.

Whenever he’s asked what’s next for the LeBron James Family Foundation, the Lakers star doesn’t always have an answer, but says he and his team are in the lab trying to come up with something. It’s a non-stop effort. They had no plan to provide scholarships to Akron students until they came up with the idea. They had no plan to open a public school for Akron’s at-risk students until the idea arrived. And now this.

“This piece is so transformational – moving a student from point A to point B while still keeping the student in school so they don’t fall further behind," Campbell said. "This is a huge game-changer for us."

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