Kobe Bryant appeared on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition’s 200^th and final episode on January 13^th. In the episode, Kobe sponsored a winter clothing drive at UC Irvine to help those who lost everything in a tornado that decimated the town of Joplin, Missouri. A reported 160 people died from a tornado that swept through that region on May 22 and has been considered the seventh deadliest in U.S. history. To help boost donation numbers, those who brought clothing were entered into a raffle for a chance to play Bryant in a one-on-one game.

Los Angeles is the homelessness capital of the nation; there are 51,000 homeless people in LA County.

Over the past 4 years, HomeWalk has mobilized 18,000 walkers, raised $1.7 million and funded organizations that have moved 9,000 people into permanent housing. All proceeds go directly back to the community, supporting permanent solutions to end homelessness for chronically homeless people, veterans and families.

Kobe Bryant is teaming up with leading non-profit United Way of Los Angeles as Honorary Chair of their 2011 HomeWalk 5K Run/Walk, Saturday, November 19, 2011, raising awareness and funds to end homelessness.

Join Team Kobe Bryant or start your own!

Sign up today at http://www.homewalkla.org/ to help our homeless citizens start a new life.

www.unitedwayla.org | www.HomeWalkLA.org | www.Facebook.com/UWGLA | www.twitter.com/launitedway

Kobe Bryant may not be your ordinary field-trip chaperone, but he is taking young people across the world. Bryant’s Kobe & Vanessa Bryant Family Foundation has partnered with After-School All-Stars, Los Angeles (ASAS-LA), an after-school program provider, to send 11 students from underserved L.A. neighborhoods to China on an educational tour. This past week, Kobe caught up with the students while they were in the world’s most populous country, treating them to a basketball seminar and promoting his foundation’s immersion program.

We caught up with Kobe to ask him about his international adventure. Here’s what the NBA star had to say:

DoSomething.org: What inspired you to get involved with After-School All Stars? Why is it important?

Kobe Bryant: It’s so important to give back to the community and help kids find opportunities through their own passion, be it sports, dance, education, the arts, community service, etc.

I have been involved with [After-School All-Stars] for over three years now. It offers comprehensive after-school programs to thousands of students in deserving inner-city communities.

DS:What is your advice to young people who want to learn more about tolerance and diversity?

KB: Take time to understand other cultures. I attended school in Italy at the age of six!

I want young people to learn more than just the world that surrounds them on a daily basis. It’s usually youths from lower socio-economic areas that have the least opportunity to learn about the world outside of their own communities. When you learn about an entirely new culture…it cultivates worldliness, tolerance, and respect for other individuals who are not like you.

DS: You’ve traveled a lot around the world. Can you think of a moment that really inspired you to help others during your travels?

KB:While filming an Olympic promotional show during the 2008 Summer Olympics, I met and befriended Cao Yan, a 14-year-old boy with spina bifida and arranged for Cao to receive life-changing medical treatment in Los Angeles. His story and trials in the fight to live inspired me both personally and professionally.

DS:Did you have any involvement in after-school programs growing up? If not, do you wish that you had?

KB:I did not have a comprehensive after-school program growing up, though I was committed to basketball practice each day after school. If it was not for basketball…I may have not had the direction to continue to excel in an activity I was passionate about.

DS:A lot of athletes skip out on educational opportunities to jump into the pro-sports world early. Why do you think it’s important to continue education?

KB:A very small percentage of top athletes make it into the professional sports industry. Kids growing up may not understand that. Though sports are very important, I’d say education is even more important. Education and knowledge can transform an individual and a life. Through education, a world of continued opportunities can come to you.

DS:If you ask tell young people sitting on the couch to go out and do something for others, right now, what would it be?

KB:Get up! Figure out something that interests you, and then figure out how you can use that passion to not only further yourself, but also to help others.

U.S. NBA star Kobe Bryant met with a group of American high school students studying in China at the U.S. Consulate in Shanghai. During his remarks to the students, Bryant explained why he supports programs like After-School All-Stars, an American non-profit organization that provides comprehensive after-school programs to children in several U.S. cities, including study abroad opportunities. He told the students that his own experience living overseas as a child allowed him to experience and understand another culture and broaden his horizons beyond his American hometown. Bryant noted, “I just want our youth to have the same feelings I had growing up.”

In her introductory remarks, Consul General Beatrice Camp noted that “These All-Stars are just a few of the ever-growing number of American students traveling to China to gain a better understanding of this country and its people”. She emphasized that the effort to significantly increase U.S. students to China is supported by the 100,000 Strong Initiative which was announced by President Obama and President Hu in 2009.

The eleven US students who met with Bryant study Mandarin and martial arts after school through the Los Angeles After-School All-Stars program supported by the Kobe & Vanessa Bryant Family Foundation. They are in Shanghai as part of a 2-week study tour organized by the Chinese Ministry of Education and the UCLA Confucius Institute.

HOLLYWOOD (KABC) – Lakers star Kobe Bryant has a new project and it has nothing to do with basketball. He’s started a foundation to fight homelessness in Los Angeles.

Kobe Bryant is a five-time NBA champion, 13-time All-Star and a former league MVP.

Tuesday he announced a new opponent off the court.

Bryant and his wife, Vanessa, are launching a foundation to target homelessness in Los Angeles

“We’re going to attack this. We’re going to attack this, because for our youth to be out there stranded in the street feeling like there’s nobody else that could support them or help them or give them guidance to be able to follow or achieve their dreams is weak,” said Kobe.

Just steps away from the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the Bryants made the announcement at a non-profit day center called My Friend’s Place.

Kobe talked with a group of young adults. He said the stories he heard were heart-wrenching yet motivating.

“Even him raising the awareness of it will definitely be making a difference for this organization and many others like it, and that difference is going to be a difference between life and death for many youths like myself,” said Michael Dorsey, who is homeless.

My Friend’s Place in Hollywood sees 80 to 120 young people come through every day. They’re part of the 7,000 young adults in Los Angeles County alone who are homeless.

“It shocked the hell out of me because I had no idea. Especially after a game, drive home, you kind of see the issue around you, but you don’t see it,” said Kobe.

Kobe says he and his wife are still educating themselves on the homeless problem. He says his foundation will increase awareness and raise money to help transform the lives of homeless kids and young adults.

“It’s all around us. We walk out here, we’re on our way home, whatever it is, it’s around us. And it’s not fair,” said Kobe. “And it’s something that we can solve, so let’s do it.”

Kobe had dreams of NBA success as a young kid. Now he wants to give some less-fortunate young people a chance to live out their dreams.

“It’s just California, so I came out here to make it and I’m going to make it,” said Loreal Madonna Moore, who moved to L.A. from Oklahoma.

(Copyright ©2011 KABC-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)

Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant took some time out of running his Kobe Basketball Academy on Friday, July 9, to host a charity luncheon at the Boys & Girls Club of Santa Barbara.

The camp, which started Wednesday and concluded Sunday, was located at the Thunderdome on UCSB’s campus. In previous years, the camp had too many members, so it had to be split into different sessions, and Bryant didn’t want that same problem this year. While sitting in the library of the Boys & Girls Club, Bryant said he was extremely happy with the camp.

“We started looking for facilities that were a bit bigger, and UCSB was extremely accommodating,” Bryant said. “And it made it have the kind of family atmosphere that I was looking for, and to say I’m pleased with it would be a huge understatement.”

Bryant said he always looks forward to spending time with the kids at his camp.

“It’s pure enjoyment,” said the five-time NBA champion. “What I get out of it is getting the joy to be around the game, but also being around the kids who legitimately love the game. I just love being around the kids. It’s like a party.”

The proceeds of the $200-a-plate luncheon will go toward the Boys & Girls Clubs of Santa Barbara County as well as The Kobe Bryant Family Foundation.

At the Kobe Basketball Academy, there are several campers who don’t speak English all that well, but Bryant said that hasn’t posed too much of a problem. “How we get the message across is we use basketball as a universal language,” Bryant said. “So we try to teach without teaching.”

“For example, one of the rules we have at the camp is a two dribble maximum — when you cross half-court, you can only dribble the ball twice. And what that does is it encourages the kids to play together. So it teaches them unselfishness, it teaches them communication, even if you don’t speak the language. Like when I moved to Italy, I didn’t speak Italian, but I had friends just through soccer and through basketball.”

Because of the time Bryant has spent in Santa Barbara recently, and in the past when the Lakers held training camp here, he was eager to talk about what he likes about the area.

“I like its peacefulness,” Bryant said. “This is easygoing. I like it. A lot of the towns that I grew up in, overseas in Italy, were like this — very calm, very family-oriented and it brings back a lot of memories.”

With the recent news of LeBron James heading to the Miami Heat to join Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade, Bryant quickly dispelled the notion that he is chomping at the bit to get back to work in the near future to prepare for the upcoming season in which the Lakers will be working toward their third title in as many years.

“No, I’m not at all. Not at all,” Bryant said. “We just had three long years – four for me counting the USA team, so I’m not chomping at anything but rest. That’s all I’m chomping on. I’m still in vacation mode.”