WID's Youth, Leadership and Diversity Initiative supports youth and young adults with disabilities, age 16-30, from traditionally underserved communities to successfully transition from school to higher education; attain independent living outcomes; and access sustainable employment opportunities.

Funded by the AT&T Foundation, the Verizon Foundation and the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, Project Vision provides culturally appropriate outreach, information and resources to youth and young adults with disabilities, their families and individuals and organizations that support and/or provide services to them, including a bilingual English/Spanish website (www.proyectovision.net) featuring resources and opportunities for scholarships/internships/jobs and electronic newsletter that highlights success stories about youth and young adults with disabilities who found employment; a project Facebook page; Success Story video clips that provide role models to inspire and educate and posted on YouTube to outreach to our target population; and  an Emerging Writers Program to develop writing skills of youth and young adults with disabilities so they may gain experience and recognition of their work.

The New Leaders Internship Program provides promising young adults with disabilities opportunities for high-quality, challenging internship positions, working across multiple programmatic areas within the Institute, and provides WID with the data to test the hypothesis that internships lead to better employment prospects for college-educated people with disabilities than those without such internship opportunities. In collaboration with UC Berkeley and targeting students from underserved communities, intern positions include researcher, blogger and writer for WID programs, affording valuable work experience critical to securing long-term employment outcomes. New leaders Interns are developing leadership skills and building their resumes, are better informed about educational, career development and employment opportunities available to them and are increasing their likelihood of a successful transition from school to work and living independently.