As the world remembers Kobe Bryant the basketball great, ferocious competitor and global icon, there’s another side of Kobe characterized by his efforts to engage with children and inspire them to put the same passion he did into whatever they pursue in life.

Staff and former students of After-School All-Stars recall the impact Kobe made in more than a decade serving as National Ambassador for the organization, one of the country’s largest providers of free after-school services for students in under-resourced communities.

The legacy left by Kobe Bryant, who died on Sunday, January 26th, 2020, along with his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others in a helicopter crash on the way to a youth basketball tournament at Mamba Sports Academy, is more than five NBA championships and two Olympic gold medals in a soon-to-be Hall of Fame basketball career with the Los Angeles Lakers.

After-School All-Stars representatives will never forget Kobe’s smile, generosity, and unique emotional availability, which enabled him to forge meaningful connections with students.

“Kobe was as much a superstar off the court as he was on it,” said Ben Paul, President and CEO of After-School All-Stars. “For over 12 years, he donated his time, wisdom and resources to the 90,000 All-Star students across the country. What I will remember most about Kobe’s involvement with us as a National Ambassador is how authentically he connected with students when he spent time with them.”

USING HIS SPOTLIGHT TO HELP KIDS
In 2007, Ben Paul met Kobe through a mutual friend and showed him the impact being made by After-School All-Stars, which offers tutoring, academic enrichment, athletic programs and mentoring at 468 elementary, middle and high schools across 60 U.S. cities during the critical hours of 3 to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Kobe immediately committed to supporting the students and programs with the same passion he put into his craft.

In addition to school visits, he gave kids scholarships to summer basketball camps, got them tickets to Lakers games, took part in fundraisers, and even sent a group of kids from the Los Angeles chapter to China through a cultural exchange program to gain the international perspective that shaped him growing up.

“One wrong decision in middle school can really impact a life in a negative way, or one good decision can send it down the right path,” Paul said. “Every now and then we meet people who really, truly get it, and Kobe Bryant was one of them.”

Actor and former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who founded After-School All-Stars in 1992, thanked Kobe for the example he set for athletes.

“Celebrities and athletes have the opportunity to perform on a huge stage and reach millions of people,” Schwarzenegger said. “That comes with a responsibility to recognize that we aren’t self-made. Whether we are actors or athletes, we got to where we are with a lot of help, and it’s our job to pass that on to the next generation.

“As one of the greatest basketball players of all time, Kobe’s spotlight was brighter than almost anyone’s, and he used it to help millions of kids. For 12 years he was an ambassador for After-School All-Stars, and he used his time and his resources to inspire our 90,000 kids and help build opportunities for them. It wasn’t a celebrity endorsement where he slapped his name on it and walked away. He was hands on, spending time with students and bringing them to his basketball camps and on and on. I couldn’t be more grateful to him for his work on behalf of our students.”

BEYOND LOS ANGELES
Kobe didn’t just visit after-school programs in his hometown of Los Angeles. Whenever he saw an opportunity for afternoon downtime on the road in a city served by After-School All-Stars, he set aside fatigue from the grueling NBA schedule to visit schools.

Paul remembers the time Kobe visited a school in Harlem. The moment he arrived, the school erupted with excitement, claps and cheers. As hundreds of kids filled the school gym, Kobe began connecting with them through basketball drills.

Word quickly spread that one of the world’s biggest stars was in town and, despite security doing what they could, 20 minutes after his arrival there were in excess of a thousand people crowding inside the gym.

Seeing the situation getting beyond his control, Paul suggested that Kobe wrap up the session early. But he kept going, setting up an imaginary scenario that it was Game 7 of the NBA Finals, the clock was winding down and it was up to the kids to steal the ball from him. As he was leaving, Kobe even yelled out for a group photo and a sea  of kids engulfed him.

“It really brought together everything about Kobe and the organization and why he was a good fit as an ambassador, because the kids loved him and he loved them,” Paul said. “Having worked with a lot of various athletes and celebrities, he stood out from anyone else I’ve ever met. He would light up around kids. Put most adults in a room full of 12-year-olds and it’s the most terrifying environment you could put them in, but that was where Kobe wanted to be. That was his element.”

IN HIS OWN WORDS
In his own words, Kobe described what After-School All-Stars meant to him in 2009:

“This program gives kids an opportunity to be able to expand their horizons and to be able to dream. I think it’s important for our youth to feel supported, to feel like there’s an environment where people care about them, people who will help them and guide them to doing the right thing and pursuing their dream.

“As you get older, you see how many people you can affect and how many lives you can touch and the difference you can make, and it really puts things into perspective. I used to hear it all the time when I was a kid – that you have to stay focused; education is the key – but as a kid it never really sinks in unless you’re put in an environment where all that comes to fruition. So it has to not only be said but it has to be lived, and in this program and this environment it’s lived on a daily basis. That’s why I think this program is so special.”

A DIFFERENT KIND OF CELEBRITY
Sean Prospect, executive director of the South Florida chapter of After-School All-Stars, was amazed when Kobe visited in 2008 and took the time to engage individually with each of the 120 students.

“We’ve had different celebrities come through, and usually they talk to the kids as a group, take a couple pictures and leave,” Prospect said. “To my pleasant surprise, when Kobe came he spent hours upon hours interacting with every single kid. He approached that camp the way he approached basketball and everything else. He always held himself to a higher standard.”

Years later, at a Miami Heat game, Prospect saw Kobe when he came to town and thanked him for what he did for the children. He recalls Kobe responding that it was his pleasure, as his passion was helping and guiding youth.

HIS IMPACT AROUND THE WORLD
In 2011, Kobe came to After-School All-Stars and proposed a cultural exchange in which Nike and the Kobe Bryant Family Foundation would bring 10 All-Stars to China for two weeks over the summer and ASAS would host 10 students from China.

Having spent some of his formative years in Italy, he wanted the students, many of whom had never before left the state of California, to gain the perspective he did from experiencing another culture and country. The program ran for four years.

Marlen Quintero Perez was a 16-year-old student at Huntington Park College-Ready Academy High when she took part in the 2011 China exchange program.

“To be received in China was a life-changing moment to move out of our spectrum of just being in LA and in our own community, and it was all thanks to Kobe,” Perez said. “He wanted to bridge communities together. I had only ever been to Mexico, with the same people from my community. To go to China and experience a different culture, different food, different people, sparked an interest in me to then continue getting an education.”

Over the course of the trip, the students attended a basketball game with Kobe and a press conference where they had the opportunity to ask him questions, get pictures and autographs. Perez remembers feeling nervous to ask for a photo with him signing her Kobe jersey, but he put her at ease by responding “Fo’ sho, fo’ sho.”

“From seeing him on TV, I thought he’s intense and probably not too talkative, but that day he was completely different,” she said. “It was a very personal experience.”

Now a PhD student at UCLA in the Graduate School of Education, Perez still has the Nike Zoom Kobe VI sneakers she received to wear to China, where she got them autographed. She framed the signed jersey and gave it to her older brother.

Recently, teaching her first class as a part-time lecturer at California State University, Northridge, she asked students to introduce themselves and provide a fun fact. She started, and her fun fact was that she met Kobe three times.

A LASTING IMPACT
In addition to the impact he made directly on children in After-School All-Stars, Kobe connected with the organization’s mission and used his platform to raise awareness for the importance of free, comprehensive after-school programs. In television appearances on Entertainment Tonight, ESPN and late-night talk shows, he spoke about the work of After-School All-Stars and emphasized the need for continued federal funding.

“There’s only so much a school day can do to help kids,” Paul said. “We have kids an extra three hours, and if a typical school day is six hours that’s 50% more time. After-school programs are a big part of the holistic education of students, and Kobe got that.”

Kobe’s work with After-School All-Stars foretold how he would go on to dedicate his time fully to producing inspiring stories for youth after retiring from the NBA, in his Oscar-winning short film Dear Basketball, books and other media.

“Losing Kobe and Gianna was heartbreaking,” Schwarzenegger said. “I can’t stop thinking of his family and all of his fans and the millions – even billions – of kids he inspired.” 

WATCH KOBE AS AN AMBASSADOR FOR AFTER-SCHOOL ALL-STARS

MAKE A DIFFERENCE TODAY

Donations big and small help make afterschool programming a reality for students across the nation.

By Timothy Parker Downtown Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES — Reshanda Gray is all in when it comes to serving her mentees in Southern California and all across America. She has a nonprofit called No Gray Areas. She’s a WNBA veteran guiding teenage girls with life lessons and basketball skills.

“To help the next girl who grew up in the same position I grew up in,” Gray said.

What You Need To Know

• – At the time she had never really played basketball
• – Kobe told her “in order to be the best, you have to envision yourself doing it”
• – Gray overcame family struggles and eventually made it to the WNBA with the LA Sparks
• – Reshanda Gray met Kobe Bryant through the After School All-Stars LA Program

She hopes to inspire the next generation the way the late great Kobe Bryant did with her. Gray met the Lakers legend through the After-School All-Stars LA program when she was 12-years-old. At the time, she wasn’t sure if she would ever be good at basketball until she talked with Kobe.

“(He said), ‘In order to be the best, you have to envision yourself doing it.’ As the years went on and I got older, I started to take basketball a little more serious,” Gray explained.

“I started to understand what he meant.”

She became a star through high school, onto college in California, then onto the WNBA, overcoming the challenges of being overlooked by universities simply because she went to a public school in South L.A.

Over a decade later, at the WNBA All-Star Game, Gray finally got the opportunity to show her appreciation to Kobe.

“Thank you for just showing us that even though you are on this level, you’re never too big to give back to the people,” she said.

“’I’m a walking representation of that. You motivated me.’ And I could just tell by the look on his face that he was just like ‘wow, it really paid off.’ Then I saw his daughter Gigi, and I said get up take a picture with us. I also told her, ‘you got a great dad.’”

Last year, her journey came full circle when she joined the Sparks and put on the purple and gold, just like Kobe. Now she’s trying to do what for these you- ng ladies what Kobe did for her

“If I can do it, you can do it too,” Gray added.

She’s passing on words of wisdom and mamba inspiration to a new generation.

Source: https://spectrumnews1.com/ca/la-west/sports/2021/01/26/south-la-native–wnba-vet-inspiring-next-generation-like-kobe-did-for-her

Lakers Fan Gets Virtual Playoff Seats for Community Work

By Timothy Parker Downtown Los Angeles PUBLISHED 10:15 AM ET Sep. 07, 2020

LOS ANGELES – As befitting someone with a downtown bird’s eye view of Staples Center, Tiana Gayton is among the lucky fans to get a virtual seat to Los Angeles Lakers playoff games in the NBA bubble in Orlando.

“You actually feel like you’re in the stands with a group of people behind you cheering all together,” Gayton explained.

The virtual seats are hard to come by. Those who land them can be seen across the world, cheering on their team.

Select season ticket holders are picked, as well as community leaders like Gayton.

She was selected because of her work as a development manager with the After-School All-Stars, Los Angeles chapter. The program provides support for academics, arts, robotics, and sports to about 20,000 young people across Southern California.

“That student that needs encouragement, that was me. I could never be a part of cheer and dance because the outfits were too expensive,” said Gayton

“You know I tried to be in basketball but you still have to buy uniforms. After-School All-Stars offers those for free,” she said.

Thanks in part, to partnerships like the one the organization has with the Lakers.

“We were able to bus almost 200 students and families to a Lakers game last November and most of them have never been,” Gayton said.

She began working with the non-profit organization in part because of Kobe Bryant. When she worked with his basketball camp, the late Laker legend brought in kids from the program.

“Through that partnership and how much Kobe cared about After School All-Stars. He actually at that point was an ambassador for all-stars. I wanted to know more,” she said.

Years later, the Lakers now know all about her. She was given 25 virtual tickets to give to those who also serve, including her husband, Jovan.

“It’s amazing man. That’s my wife. This is my team. So, it’s like a dream come true,” he said.

The Lakers rotate fans for virtual seats to give more people opportunities. They will face the and Rockets in game 3 in the Western Conference Semifinals Tuesday night. But that’s technically a Houston home game, so it will be Rockets fans displayed in the bubble.

By John Fuentes

What happens when adult allies continue to make authentic youth voice a priority? When High school students in various leadership groups from San Diego to Oakland, CA speak truth to power? When technology becomes a resource for across state collaboration? When young people meet up in Sacramento to speak to legislators about the challenges they’re faced with and how afterschool funding supports overcoming some of these challenges? Answer: a $50M ASES increase with the support of our “TACA”(Teens Advocating for Civic Engagement) youth.

TACA started a little over a year ago when a group of CA3 (California Afterschool Advocacy Alliance) members discussed how powerful it would be to bring more youth voice to the front lines of civic action. Myself, Brad Lupien (ARC), Donny Faaliliu (L.A. All Stars) and Aleah Rosario (CalSac) spent some time during 2018/19 school year unpacking what TACA should look and feel like.

Once a month from October to May in the 2018/19 school year approximately 8 to 12 students from 5 High Schools representing ARC, L.A All-Stars and Bay Area Community Resources (BACR) got on a Zoom chat and discussed issues they were facing in their communities and what action steps they were taking to help resolve some of these issues. With the support of CalSac’s resource guides and the support from afterschool leadership staff, TACA students learned the difference between service and civic action. They learned more about local government and what issues the local officials were passionate about. This work helped support an informed dialogue between TACA students and their local and state officials.

We found that the reoccurring challenges students were faced with in their communities were affordable housing, violence, suicide, and lack of equity in education. Whether students were attending JFK high school in southern California or Oakland Tech high school in the Bay Area, these issues were similar. Using Zoom video chats, TACA students had an opportunity to see, hear and learn from other students across the state and know that they were not alone doing work. Students shared ideas, action plans and goals for sustainability and systemic change.

TACA students expressed how cool it was to be able to connect with other students across the state, share their ideas and get feedback. How cool it was to see each other on a Zoom chat once a month and then meet in person for the first time in Sacramento; to know that they played a part in getting the $50M ASES increase because they shared their stories and mobilized.

Now, in year two, TACA has over 25 members from San Diego to Oakland, CA representing 14 high schools and 4 middle schools. Me, Brad, Donny and now Ayala Goldstein (CalSac) continue to support the TACA members as adult allies and coaches. This year TACA is made up of 1-2 students who are part of an existing afterschool leadership group and represent that group during our monthly Zoom chat meetings. The goal is for the two TACA representatives from each school site to join the monthly Zooms and share their learning with their peers and mobilize for Civic Action and change.

Affordable housing, violence, and education continue to be pressing topics for our TACA youth and their peers and we will continue to support them with their Civic Action goals. We have a few new goals this year which include: Supporting with the 2020 Census, getting people registered to vote and once again showing up in Sacramento on March 9th and 10th for the California Afterschool and Summer Challenge.

If you want to see, hear and learn more about TACA, please check TACA out at this year’s BOOST Conference as they lead a workshop on Thursday April 30th, 3:45-5:30pm entitled “Student- Lead Campaign for Civic Engagement.” You can also email me at john.fuentes@bacr.org or Ayala Goldstein at agoldstein@calsac.org

http://blog.learninginafterschool.org/2020/02/teens-advocating-for-civic-engagement.html?m=1

By Sam Piha

(This blog was authored prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. At this point the decision to re-open schools in the Fall, and afterschool programs, is not yet clear. Thus, at the end of the blog, we list some suggestions on how youth can be involved in the Fall election digitally.)

The 2020 election offers a number of opportunities to engage older youth and with recent Black Lives Matters escalating efforts, there is no better time for youth to be involved in making a change through the ballot box. We can frame these efforts as “meaningful participation”, “civic engagement”, “youth leadership” or “community service”. There are a number of organizations and initiatives that have designed curriculums, program tools and other materials to assist afterschool providers in their efforts to engage youth in the 2020 election.

Did you know that young people can pre-register to vote at the age of 16-17? I didn’t, until I learned this from some of these materials below. There are a number of ways that youth can be involved in the 2020 election, even if they are not old enough to vote. These include sponsoring a voter registration event, supporting family and friend’s participation, uplifting stories and issues they care about, supporting a candidate’s campaign through volunteering or being part of the election process.

Donny Faaliliu,
After-School All-Stars, Los Angeles

We asked Donny Faaliliu, Director of Leadership and Community Outreach with After-School All-Stars, Los Angeles, how they are planning to engage youth in the 2020 elections. He responded, “After-School All-Stars, Los Angeles plans to engage our high school students through our youth leadership programs. The expectations would be for each school to host informative meetings on campus to educate students to use their voice through the voting process. The Democracy Class curriculum will help us to accomplish this goal. This curriculum is user friendly and the activity plans are easy to follow. It is a great resource for students because it provides valuable information on voter education, registration and the importance of voter turn-out. The webinar trainings were also very helpful and informative on how to best maximize this wonderful resource.”

We also learned about how teachers and youth workers can use a video by rapper, Yellopain, entitled, “My Vote Don’t Count,” which can be viewed by clicking on the image below.

Source: Yellopain, “My Vote Don’t Count”

Article Source: http://blog.learninginafterschool.org/2020/06/engaging-youth-in-2020-election.html

By Vanessa Pappas, General Manager, TikTok US

As schools across the country close, one of the greatest challenges facing many parents is how to feed their children. Millions of students, teachers and families depend on school resources for more than learning. The reality of this struck a nerve for the TikTok family, with many parents on our team and countless students, parents, families, and teachers in our community. As a company, we are committed to helping the broader TikTok family navigate through this extraordinarily difficult time.

We are all operating in uncertain times, and it’s more important now than ever before, for both our local and global communities to come together to help those in need. Today we are donating $3M through a partnership with After-School All-Stars (ASAS) to help provide food for families who have been impacted by the loss of access to free or reduced-cost school meals. ASAS, an organization founded by former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger that provides school-based, free, comprehensive after-school programs, is currently supporting 100,000 families year-round across 13 different states.

Our donation will aid in the distribution of food credits and gift cards for local grocery partners, providing critical support for families in 60 cities across the U.S., including Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, Newark, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington D.C., and more. These resources will help communities that have been hit the hardest by the residual impact of the coronavirus pandemic. And while this alone won’t mitigate the impact of the current situation, we hope it can relieve one worry for parents who are balancing social distancing mandates, work and caring for children who can no longer go to school each day. In addition, TikTok will also match up to $1M in employee donations to ASAS to further the organization’s ability to provide food for those in need.

“While our After-School All-Stars programs are paused with schools closed, we take our responsibility to serve the 100,000 families we work with year-round to provide a safe place for their children to learn and grow after-school seriously. When I founded After-School All-Stars in 1992, the goal was always to support the families who need us the most. I want to thank my friends at TikTok for their donation, because it will allow us to pivot to use our After-School All-Stars team to deliver groceries and gift cards for groceries to the families we help.” 

– Arnold Schwarzenegger, Former Gov. California and Founder of After-School All-Stars

We will also continue to use our platform to facilitate other partnerships that will benefit families across the country and around the world. We are mindful of the role TikTok plays in the lives of the people who rely on us daily and will do everything in our power to ensure that our platform and resources help people through this difficult period.

To learn more about TikTok’s effort to support our community, visit our COVID-19 resources on our Safety Center.

Last December, Casey Hayward surprised ten families from After-School All-Stars Los Angeles (ASAS-LA) with $1,000 each, making their holidays more special.

Fast forward five months later, and Hayward will be recognized as one of the program’s 2019 honorees. Along with what he did for ASAS-LA by his contributions to the L.A. community, Hayward is being honored for his “exceptional leadership skills and achievement across the full spectrum of responsibility.”

“Any time you can come out and help somebody, (it’s good,)” Hayward said. “I’m not hurting, so I can go out here and help a lot of people as much as I can. Hopefully, more people can see it and hopefully other people can come out and help as much as possible as well.”

Since joining the Chargers in 2016, Hayward has made an impact on the field, but additionally, he’s made it his mission to give back off of it. But ask him what it means to give back and the team’s former Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year nominee will tell you he genuinely just loves to do it. He doesn’t do it for notoriety or praise, he does it out of the good of his heart.

“I don’t do it to get recognized,” he mentioned. “My family and I do it just to do it. We’ve been in unfortunate situations before, so any time we can help people get into better situations, it’s always good.”

Giving back is also Hayward’s extension of honoring his mother, Tish, who passed away from breast cancer in 2016. Tish started the family’s non-profit, Hayward’s Hands, and Casey has continued to carry on her legacy through his work. Helping families from ASAS-LA is just another example of his continuing generosity instilled in him by his mom.

“(Giving back) goes back to keeping the foundation going and keeping things going inside our family. We’re just trying to reach as many people as we can.”

Excelling in tech, sports, science, the arts, fitness, service, not to mention friends, love, and lots of yummy afternoon snacks are just some of the reasons why LeBron and students like Dequan  after school. Won’t you join them too? #ILoveAfterSchool #SaveAfterSchool #AfterSchoolWorks #AfterschoolForAll

The National Basketball Association (NBA) announced today that Team LeBron has selected After-School All-Stars, Los Angeles as the community-based organization they will play for during the 67th NBA All-Star Game on Sunday, Feb. 18 (8 p.m. ET) at Staples Center.
The winning team will donate $350,000 and the losing team will donate $150,000 to their selected organization, which will also be highlighted throughout the NBA All-Star Game.As a part of this thrilling moment for the organization, we’re also getting the rare chance to engage some of our All-Star students in both the game and the #TeamLeBron practice. 15 students will be paired with players to run out on the court to kick off Saturday’s high-profile practice, get an insider’s view by sitting in the stands to watch the practice, and will speak to media. Another ten students will attend Sunday’s All-Star game and engage in an in-game, on-court experience. This opportunity provides a tremendous amount of exposure for the good work we do, as well as a once-in-a-lifetime experience for students to be an integral part of the All-Star weekend.
You too can  join LeBron James and Team East in supporting After-School All-Stars, Los Angeles’ comprehensive after school programming, by donating  via the link below:

Mentors Make A Difference.

Reshanda Gray is an alumna of our ASAS Los Angeles program and current WNBA player for the Atlanta dream. She grew up in a one-bedroom apartment, where her parents battled with drug and alcohol abuse.

“I was kicking and screaming,” says Reshanda, recalling the day the police separated her from her mom. “For us to be driving away in the back of a police car and have your mom chasing the car down. No kid should have to go through that…”

Reshanda joined ASAS, which quickly became her safe haven. Tyrone Dinnen became a life-long mentor and encouraged her to try basketball, giving her life new direction and focus. Joining a team and becoming more active helped build her confidence and natural talents, ultimately leading to a full scholarship at UC Berkeley and her current career as a professional athlete.