The Golden State Warriors moved their home arena from Oakland, Calif. across the bay to San Francisco following the 2019 NBA season. But Warriors superstar Stephen Curry, the four-time NBA champion, and his wife Ayesha Curry, a food and lifestyle entrepreneur, never left Oaktown behind.
Last August, the Currys announced that they were pledging $25 million, through their Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation, to narrow the literacy gap in Oakland’s underserved communities. With COVID-19 emergency relief funds running out for Oakland schools, the Currys are aiming to fund high-dosage tutoring—generally defined as one-on-one tutoring or tutoring in very small groups at least three times a week—for some 10,000 elementary school students in their adopted hometown. It’s all part of the Currys’ larger plan to boost the well-being of Oakland children through their foundation, which has raised and invested more than $ 75 million on initiatives including nutritious meal programs, remodeling schoolyards and gymnasiums, and sports programming since its 2019 launch.
"We quickly realized that the literacy rates in all of these schools were plummeting, and they were plummeting from a place that was already depressingly low," says Ayesha Curry. "With just a little bit of one-on-one tutoring, you're able to have these kids jump leaps and bounds. They're also being instilled with so much confidence now that is shifting to every other subject matter within the school day. It's such a beautiful thing."