OPIRG Provincial has started a pilot program to help engage our PIRGs, boards, action group members, volunteers, and the wider community. “Collaboration Lunches” – are now held once a month (on the first Tuesday from 12-1:30 pm) to help us better connect and share campaigns, actions, and research work happening throughout Ontario! We’d love for you to join us in a chill online (zoom) environment, and come to share or listen to what folks are working on! Some ideas can include Cops Off Campus campaigns, Palestinian solidarity support, Free Stores, Labour organizing, environmental justice, local community work and campaigns, and so much more! Please bring your ideas, and your current work, and be ready to share (in the way that feels best to you) – with folks across the province.
Guidelines: No specific topic or need. We will use a safer space policy as a guide for our time together, and build off of it if there is a need to!
When: Date/Time (2nd session)
Tuesday, August 6, 2024
12-1:30 pm ET (GMT-04)
Registration: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0pd-yopzkjGNxMOssbUOfftw_09esQcfph#/registration
In this session, we will have OPIRG McMaster and OPIRG Kingston presenting on their PIRGS, for example, how your PIRG is structured/ how it works, and discuss where things are at/ have changed!
When: Date/Time (Upcoming sessions)
Schedule – First Tuesday of every month: September 3, October 1, November 5, December 3, February 2025, March 2025, April 2025, and May 2025. Afterward, we will assess how these sessions are going and always take suggestions on improvements and updates needed!
Background
The OPIRG Provincial Network is a decentralized body that provides support for, and facilitates collaboration, and sharing of resources and builds/strengthens relationships between individual PIRGs in Ontario. We are comprised of a series of Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGs) based in communities across the Province. These PIRGs share similar mandates and policies but function autonomously in their everyday workings, and work to provide tools, resources, and support to their student and community members, and Action Groups (in the form of, but not limited to funding, space to hold meetings and organize, outreach, and volunteer recruitment with events and actions).
Many PIRGs link their action groups to the wider community and other student and community groups working on social and environmental justice issues – and often, intersecting – campaigns. These campaigns and events thematically highlight the most pressing issues of our times so as to keep our communities engaged with the social justice landscape of our communities and cities.
