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Ten years after Danny Wuerffel won the Heisman Trophy, he walked off the football field and took up an even scrappier calling—to head an outreach in one of New Orleans’ roughest neighborhoods.

After leading the Florida Gators to four SEC championships, Danny played six seasons in the NFL for a mix of teams: the New Orleans Saints, the Green Bay Packers, the Chicago Bears, and the Washington Redskins. While playing for the Saints, he stumbled across Desire Street Ministries in New Orleans’ Ninth Ward. Established in 1990 by Mo and Ellen Leverett, Desire Street began as an after school program in the crime-ridden Desire housing project and grew into a full-blown Christian academy for young men.

It all began one day when Wuerffel was driving through New Orlean’s Ninth Ward. Turning down one street, he noticed three young children rushing from an inflamed building he assumed was condemned and uninhabited.

The impaired structure had stood for years along a badly neglected street of Ninth Ward, a part of town city officials refused to visit, and one where “mandatory” fire and health code inspections had not taken place in many years. Despite the death of the youngest child from smoke inhalation, the event was not covered by the local media.

Outraged that the child’s death went unnoticed beyond the neighborhood, Wuerffel committed himself to advocate for the voiceless in the Ninth Ward.  He discovered Desire Street Ministries then, and began leveraging his celebrity status to grow the outreach.

But then, in 2005, Hurricane Katrina blew through New Orleans and took Desire Street with it, along with the Wuerffels’ house. Danny and his family escaped to Florida. Although many of the young men who had attended Desire Street were displaced by the storm, Danny and his team set up a make-shift boarding school facility in Timpoochee, Florida, for the remaining boys. Eventually they began a new school in Baton Rouge, and started the slow process of rebuilding in New Orleans.

Five years later, Desire Street has made huge steps toward creating a new future in New Orleans, with a youth recreation facility, an after school academy, and a community development association called CDC 58:12 based off of Isaiah 58:12: “Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.”

Aside from running Desire Street, Danny is husband to Jessica and father to Jonah, Joshua, and Macy.