Wilderness Inner-City Leadership Development Program

Our Story

Wilderness Inner-City Leadership Development (WILD), a program of InterIm CDA, is open to 14-19 year old's who are looking to build leadership qualities like self-confidence and teamwork within the context of environmental education, civic engagement, and intergenerational relationship building. During the school year, we have a few 10 week courses including: cooking crew, garden crew, and a college preparation group. We offer stipends or service learning hours at completion of the programs. We also offer a school year-long Fellowship program where youth engage in intergenerational opportunities with residents of the CID. In the summer, we offer paid hands-on opportunities in urban gardening, parks activation, community building, and outdoor recreation.

Since our inception in 1997, WILD has served about 1,000 primarily low-income, Asian and Pacific Islander (API) immigrant and refugee youth. Graduates of WILD have come back as college interns, program coordinators, and even full-time Interim CDA staff! We are proud to have a 20+ year legacy of developing environmentally-informed leaders of color.