About Us

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Overview

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OPIRG Toronto is a volunteer-based group at the University of Toronto, with a mandate for action, education, and research on environmental and social justice issues. We are part of an international network of Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGs), including ten others in Ontario. We seek to empower and educate students and other members of the community, provide a forum for learning and sharing skills, and give people the tools and opportunity to work cooperatively for social change. While OPIRG Toronto is best known for our environmental work and related research, the majority of our projects actually focus on a wider variety of social justice issues or on the links between various issues.

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Program Focus

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Most non-profit volunteer based organizations have a “client base” and/or work issues selected by their staff and Board of Directors. OPIRG is doesn’t work like this. The issues we work on are chosen by volunteerswho are more than our “client-base”, volunteers actually make the organization what it is. This means that one of our most important objectives is to provide a space where people at U of T and in the broader community can utilize and further develop the skills, tools and analysis they need/want to do their work around issues of social and environmental justice more effectively.

It’s true that in any given year, several working groups will come and go, volunteers may graduate or move on, staff may change and interests or commitments may wane, but new people and opportunities give birth to new ones just as regularly. This is healthy. It is part of what keeps OPIRG Toronto innovative and refreshed. OPIRG’s activities reflect the interests, commitments and skills of its participants. From our perspective, which issue is worked on is as important as what volunteers learn from their experiences and how they are empowered in this process.

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Beautiful Design.

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