Office of Engagement and
Community Affairs

The Garbage Olympics is Pittsburgh's yearly neighborhood versus neighborhood competition to see who can pick up the most trash! The Garbage Olympics was created in 2017 and is as a fun way to build community in Pittsburgh neighborhoods while using competition as a motivation to clean up the city. Prizes are awarded for most trash collected, largest team, weirdest item found, and most spirit. In the most recent Olympics, almost 1,000 bags of trash were picked up from city streets. This year's Garbage Olympics will be held, Saturday, Sept. 23.

Oakland will have two teams, one supporting Central and South Oakland and one supporting West Oakland.

Alongside the Oakland Planning and Development Corportation, the Central and South Oakland team will meet at 8:30 a.m. at Zulema Parklet (grassy park area along the Blvd of the Allies) at Zulema St. and Halket St. for instructions and to receive gloves, vests, garbage bags and other supplies. We will begin the clean up promptly at 9 a.m. and end at 11 a.m.

Supported by Pitt Athletics, the West Oakland team will meet at 8:30 a.m. on the corner outside of Trees Hall on the Pittsburgh campus for instructions and to receive gloves, vests, garbage bags and other supplies. We will begin the clean up promptly at 9 a.m. and end at 11 a.m., meeting back at the Trees Hall corner.

To sign up to volunteer, please visit the Volunteer Portal for the Central and South Oakland clean-up team and the West Oakland clean-up team.

The English Language Institute is looking for volunteer ESL teachers for their Campus Conversation Course (CCC) program. This is a volunteer position but the teachers work under supervision and guidance. There's a curriculum and textbook, and they get observed during the semester. It's a good opportunity to get some classroom teaching experience.

The CCC is an informal, non-credit program. It's open to anyone living in the Pittsburgh area who is a non-native speaker of English and wants to improve their conversational skills. Classes are usually held in the evening and are kept small.

To sign up, please visit the Volunteer Portal.

The School of Nursing’s Department of Health and Community Systems is seeking volunteers to assist with the Poverty Simulation activity scheduled for Monday, Oct. 9. This is a graduation requirement for all senior BSN and ABSN nursing students offered each fall and spring semesters.

The Poverty Simulation, a live-action opportunity for our nursing students to gain insight into the daily lives of low-income families and is aimed to expand their understanding of social determinants of health right before their career as a medical provider begins. During the simulation, the students role-play the lives of low-income families from single parents trying to care for their children, to senior citizens trying to maintain their self-sufficiency on Social Security.

This thought-provoking experience is scheduled for Monday, Oct. 9 and will be offered in two sessions: 9 to 11:30 a.m. and 12 to 2:30 p.m. in the O’Hara Student Center Ballroom (4024 O'Hara St, Pittsburgh, PA 15213). The volunteers will receive a light breakfast and lunch and paid parking for Soldiers and Sailors Garage. Each session takes 2.5 hours. Can’t commit to a full day? No problem! We welcome any level of volunteer participation your schedule may allow; you are not expected to commit to the full day involvement. We appreciate any amount of time you can provide.

You may direct any questions you have to Assistant Professor Na-Jin Park (parknj1@pitt.edu).

To sign up to volunteer, please visit the Volunteer Portal.

Civic Action Week is a week-long, campus-wide event for students, faculty, staff, and the broader community to educate, engage, and encourage dialogue and civic action to tackle pressing social issues in the Pittsburgh community and beyond.

This year's theme for Civic Action Week is Rewriting our Future: Activism through Storytelling. This year, Civic Action Week takes place October 16 through October 21. Educational workshops and speakers will occur throughout the week and service project days in the community will occur on Friday, Oct. 20 and Saturday, Oct. 21.

Please visit the Civic Action Week website to sign up for workshops and service opportunities.

Find more upcoming opportunities through the University's volunteer portal at volunteer.pitt.edu.