Known to football fans everywhere, Mel Blount was a star cornerback for the Pittsburgh Steelers and voted into the Hall of Fame. But it's not just sports fans who think Mel Blount is great. Since he retired from football, he's been sticking his neck out to provide a temporary home and positive direction to youngsters in trouble.

Mel Blount started his first Youth Home in Vidalia, Georgia, his home town, where hundreds of young troublemakers have been successfully rehabilitated. When Blount moved his family to Claysville PA, where he bought a 250-acre farm and built his second youth home. Despite a smear campaign and threats by the Ku Klux Klan, Blount opened the Claysville home, taking in hundreds more troubled kids.

Blount's football career began quite inauspiciously—he did so poorly he even thought about quitting. But with the help of his coach, who taught him to believe in himself, he changed his attitude and improved 100%. Blount applies that lesson to the kids in his youth homes, which he would like to expand all over the US. Blount says, "There's one thing we need to understand as black people. We're losing our kids faster than we can even imagine. We've got to get behind one another, support each other, and get together to make a difference."