The DeanBeat: Riot Games launches South LA tech and gaming center in its own backyard
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Riot Games and SoLA Impact’s I CAN Foundation have opened a tech and gaming center in poverty-stricken South Los Angeles.
It’s an example of doing good in your own backyard, and it was made possible with a social impact contribution of more than $2 million from Riot Games, the Los Angeles-based maker of League of Legends and Valorant.
The 14,000-square-feet tech and gaming center will provide free educational instruction to the community of South Los Angeles, said Sherri Francois, SoLa Impact’s Chief Impact Officer and Executive Director of the SoLa I CAN Foundation, in an interview with GamesBeat.
It all started with a pitch that the group made in 2018. Last year, they met with the founders of Riot Games, Marc Merrill and Brandon Beck, and that led to the donation to the nonprofit group.
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“We started having conversations around the incredible tech desert of South LA and talking to schools, parents, students, and the community about the need to provide tech programming and tech education,” said Francois. “The need for tech training was so vast that we thought we’ve got commercial space, we know that we can align with great partners. We should build out a tech center. Quite frankly, it was as simple as that.”
Francois said the nonprofit started talking to potential partners, and the conversation with Riot Games clicked immediately as the company
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