NEW ORLEANS -- Riki Ellison, Chairman and Founder of the Youth Impact Program and a three-time Super Bowl winner with the San Francisco 49ers, announced Tuesday the opening of the third year of one of the nation's most innovative "at risk" programs for the community.

The Youth Impact Program (YIP) invests in "at risk" below the poverty line young boys from nine to 12 years old in a four-week intense program through using Tulane facilities, staff, student athletes and local elementary teachers.

Student athletes participating from Tulane University include Albert Williams, Chris Asumnu, Zandria Debowles, Dezman Moses, Phillip Davis, Aaron Holmes, Darryl Farley, Kris Rhymes, David Booker, Chandler Davis, Andrew Nierman, Joe Kemp and Kasey Rodgers.

The program provides food, clothing, transportation, mathematics, language arts, football, and life skills development to include Anger Management, Conflict Resolution, Drug Education and permanent mentoring relationships between the boys and local teachers, staff and student athletes of Tulane.

This joint community effort that cost about $1,000 investment in each boy is changing their lives at a critical formative age which if not changed would cost the community about $36,000 a year for incarceration costs as the national statistics show a good portion of urban "at risk" boys will end up in prison if not attended to.

The Youth Impact Program at Tulane uses football to attract the young boys to come in off of the streets in the summer, and it exposes them to the University and its support structure in their community. Support of the Youth Impact Program is provided by Tulane University; its President Scott S. Cowen; Rita Benson LeBlanc, Owner/Executive Vice President of the New Orleans Saints; and the NFL Youth Football Fund.

It is an integrated partnership between the local community, Tulane University, the municipality of New Orleans, the New Orleans Saints and the NFL to make a difference in the lives of young minority urban at-risk boys that will change our communities for the better. The program is a national program that is in its fifth year with an additional site in Syracuse, New York.

The Youth Impact Program has received a Joint Congressional Resolution for its achievements. The YIP program runs through the month of July, with a year-round program to follow, where the boys will continue to be monitored and mentored on a monthly basis at Tulane. (We haven't been able to do this as of yet because of funding...but we do continue the contact and mentoring with the schools at Tulane events throughout the year)