Volume 55 |
ISSUE 4: October 7, 2022

Third Civic Action Week features workshops, in-person volunteering

Tuesday, October 4, 2022

Civic Action Week is back for its third year with more in-person volunteer opportunities for Pitt faculty, staff and students, along with workshops open to the whole community.

The theme for this year’s week, Oct. 17 to 23, is “The Path to Joy and Liberation.”

The in-person volunteer events will take place Oct. 21 and 22. Currently, there are 30 projects looking for volunteers. You can sign up on the Civic Action Week website, or you can register under the Civic Action Week Open Project and be placed where there are open spots on the day you volunteer.

Just a few of the projects include:

  • Organizing care packages or preparing for a distribution for True T PGH, a group that helps queer people of color.

  • Doing gardening and weeding for the Oasis Project Farm and Fishery.

  • Helping with Manchester Clean up Day with the Manchester Historical Society

  • Cleaning up litter in a badly neglected section of Mount Washington with Neighbors on the Mount.

  • Helping to conduct an event called “ECO FEST” with the Project Love Coalition

There also will be a food drive, with collection barrels available in the William Pitt Union starting Oct. 10. See the website for details on what you can donate.

All of the events for Civic Action Week fall under one or more of the six Pathways for Public Service and Civic Engagement:

Community Engaged Learning and Research: Connecting coursework and academic research to community-identified concerns to enrich knowledge and inform action on social issues.

Community Organizing and Activism: Involving, educating, and mobilizing individual or collective action to influence or persuade others.

Direct Service: Working to address the immediate needs of individuals or a community, often involving contact with the people or places being served.

Philanthropy: Donating or using private funds or charitable contributions from individuals or institutions to contribute to the public good.

Policy and Governance: Participating in political processes, policymaking, and public governance.

Social Entrepreneurship and Corporate Social Responsibility: Using ethical business or private sector approaches to create or expand market-oriented responses to social or environmental problems.

Workshops

Some of the workshops currently scheduled include:

Environmental Path to Joy and Liberation: This community roundtable discussion will focus on how to take action and reclaim joy as a form of radical self and community care.

Finding Joy in Democracy: PittVotes will welcome representatives from Civic Influencers, New PA Project, Rise PA, and the Pitt Student Government Board to discuss how students might find joy in democracy during challenging times.

Racial Wealth Gap Simulation: Derived from Bread for The World’s Institute and Network, the Racial Wealth Gap Learning Simulation is an interactive tool for illustrating the legacy of racial inequality in the United States and follows 13 federal policies that were enacted from the mid-19th century to the present.

VITA Volunteers are Vital: The Human Services Corporation and Just Harvest will be facilitating an educational workshop on the importance of the IRS Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) Program and the need for volunteers.