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Alternative Frosh
OPIRG Kingston annually hosts events after Orientation Week which expose other aspects of Queen's Culture. Alternative Frosh has taken place over the month of September or over a week after Orientation. Check it out to meet new people and learn about what is going on in Kingston!
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Alternative Jewish Voices
Alternative Jewish Voices is a group of like-minded members in the Kingston and Queen’s communities, who stand in solidarity with all those opposing racism and discrimination in all its forms. The group aims to provide an alternative space for Jews on Queens’s campus and in the Kingston community to engage in dialogue and discussion on issues and topics that are rendered silent in many circles. Through this they will provide a platform to speak out in defense of human rights whether in Canada, in Palestine/Israel, or elsewhere. AJV also intends on being the starting point to understanding the implications and dangers that come along with places and spaces that speak in the name of Jews worldwide.
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Alternative Resource Library
The Alternative Resource Library is housed at the Grey House. It's free and anyone in Kingston is welcome to browse our stacks, take out books and videos, or drop by to search the web and have a cup of coffee.
Note: This is an OPIRG-Kingston Coalition or Joint Project.
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Black History Month
Starting each fall, we organize an amazing slate of events for February to celebrate Black History Month in Kingston. Everyone welcome to join the organizing committee or attend events.
Note: This is an OPIRG-Kingston Coalition or Joint Project.
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Free Queen's
Free Queen's! is an initiative dedicated to providing wider access to quality education. Twice each year, the Free Queen's group organizes a non-credit, university level course that is available for anyone - for free! The group consists of representatives from the OPIRG, Women's Studies, the Equity Office, students, and community members. Find out more on the Free Queen's website.
Note: This is an OPIRG-Kingston Coalition or Joint Project.
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Positive Space
The Positive Space Program is a project dedicated to marking Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans-identified positive spaces on campus. Individuals attend information sessions and then post Positive Space stickers in their workplaces to identify their participation in the program. To register, please complete the application on-line.
Note: This is an OPIRG-Kingston Coalition or Joint Project.
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reelout
reelout queer film + video festival started as an OPIRG working group and has now expanded to be its own non-profit organization, which still retains close ties with OPIRG. We are now entering our eight year of programming innovative, sexy, intelligent, glam, fascinating, independent queer film and video in Kingston. The festival is held at the end of January. Watch out for other screenings throughout the year. If you like watching movies and organizing fun community-building events, then send us an email or check out our website.
Note: This is an OPIRG-Kingston Coalition or Joint Project.
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Yellow Bike Action
Fighting pollution and poverty! Yellow Bike Action is a volunteer-run, anti-hierarchical, and pro-community space. Volunteers learn about bike repair and recycle used bikes, providing affordable and environmentally-sensible modes of transportation to Kingston residents. YBA is also always looking for donations of used bikes, bike parts, time, and money to help cover our overhead costs. Anyone interested in helping out, whether you know anything about bikes or not, is welcome to drop in. For more information drop by the YBA bike shop at 23 Carlisle Street in Kingston, call 545 0404 or e-mail.
Note: This is an OPIRG-Kingston Coalition or Joint Project.
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Community Urban Sustainability Projects
CUSP hosts small free/cheap skill shares, and public workshops on any topic relating to sustainability in the city. We are also working on a petition to change a Kingston by-law to allow for raising chickens within city limits. http://cuspkingston.blogspot.com/
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Food Not Bombs
Food Not Bombs is a group of volunteers who provide a free lunch every Sunday (and occasionally at other events in town) by collecting and preparing donated food from supermarkets and grocers. It was born out of the belief that hunger is not an agricultural problem, but rather a problem of distribution. It is estimated that up to 25% of the food in North American ends up in landfills each year, translating to 130 lbs. of wasted food per person (enough to feed 49 million people). Volunteers are needed to prepare and serve food - it's a small time commitment, as little a few hours per month! No experience needed! Email us to get involved: fnbkingston[at]lists.riseup.net
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Fourth Wave
Fourth Wave' was started by a group of women interested in feminism and in how to talk about it with people who don't know why it is relevant today. The group began meeting weekly in September 2006, and as interest in the group spread, it expanded to include a monthly speaker series. The monthly speaker series invites people from the Kingston and surrounding communities to share their interests in feminism, incorporating diverse views of and approaches to feminist theory and practice. The name 'Fourth Wave' is a reference to the history of feminism which is often described in first, second, and third (or post) waves. Adopting the term 'Fourth Wave' was a bold step to envision feminism's revival in a society where it is often misunderstood and assumed to be a thing of the past. Click here for the old website.
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Free Geek Kingston
The objective of Free Geek Kingston is to reduce downstream e-waste through refurbishment/reuse. Equipment for reuse is available at low or no cost to both less class-privileged Queen’s students and Kingston community members. If e-waste is to be salvaged for scrap, we ensure that the entire recycling stream is socially and ethically responsible (i.e. not sent to dumps in developing nations, with little to no labour or environmental laws). Free Geek is a resource for training/experience in, but not limited to: computer repair, open-source software and the open-source software movement, commercial recycling and e-waste recycling, non-profit management and collective decision-making. Furthermore, these skills and services are available through a grass-roots, non-hierarchical and non-profit organization. Lastly, Free Geek Kingston is a safe space where anti-oppression is incorporated into the organizational culture.
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Germinations
Friends of Germinations strives to advocate for, raise awareness about, and fundraise towards more community-oriented, anti-oppressive and non-hierarchical institutions in the Kingston area. Our current goal is to sow the seeds for a social centre in downtown Kingston that can open in September 2008. The social centre is hoped to be a major space in Kingston that can be a launching pad to community-oriented, anti-oppressive and non-hierarchical organizing that aims at total social transformation.
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Kingston Urban Agriculture Action Committee
KUAAC is a group of concerned citizens who are interested in moving our community towards a more sustainable food system. The group focuses on local, community-based change initiatives. The goal is to increase urban food production and consumption through a variety of projects including but not limited to community gardens, increase of urban agriculture projects, farm-to-school and school-to-farm projects. The prime focus is to take effective action to transform the community's food system.
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Loving Spoonful
Loving Spoonful is an innovative collaboration among OPIRG Kingston, The Partners In Mission Foodbank, The Sisters of Providence of St Vincent DePaul's Justice and Peace Office and the National Farmer's Union Local 316. We hope to address issues of hunger and food waste in the Kingston community by reclaiming and recovering food from grocery stores and restaurants and redistributing them to local meal providers and agencies. We also hope to combine this effort with supporting locally and sustainably produced food. For more information please email susan@lovingspoonful.org or visit www.lovingspoonful.org
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People's History Project
The People's History Project gathers first-hand interviews and documents related to social movements in Kingston, and creates a well-organized, public archive. The PHP aims to preserve an aspect of Kingston's rich history that is often overlooked in traditional histories - Kingstonians' important roles in the broader social movements of our time. This archive has an emphasis on documenting the first-hand experience of participants in grassroots social movements. As well, it preserves a collection of relevant newspaper articles, placards, posters, handbills, buttons, t-shirts and other surviving materials. You can currently access the ever-expanding archive in the Alternative Resource Library. We hope to have an abridged version of the archive on the web in the future. For more information email peoples_history@opirgkingston.org.
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radio613
radio613 is a collective and radio broadcast dedicated to Jewish politics, culture, and religious life. Diasporic tones find auditory homes through featured interviews, music, readings, discussion, and documentaries. Each week radio613 presents Jewish perspectives on religious/spiritual thought and practice, race and racism, gender and feminisms, anti-semitism, identity politics, colonialism and resistance...and more! Tune in on Mondays from 5-6pm on CFRC 101.9fm in Kingston or online at www.cfrc.ca. For more information, contact Malcah or Avi from the radio613 collective at radio613@riseup.net.
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Resist 2010
Resist 2010 aims to raise awareness of the social, economic, political, and environmental destruction resulting from the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver. The primary goal is to educate the community on the interconnection of local anti-colonial, anti-poverty, and anti-capitalist struggles alongside national and international action against VANOC. This educational group raises awareness of the oppression and marginalization caused by Olympic organizing, specifically affecting indigenous communities.
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Sunnyside Community Garden
The community garden, under the name "Quattrocchi Community Garden," was started in 2001 in an undeveloped lot "Block D." For 4 years, it was a space that community members enjoyed and used to grow their own veggies and flowers! For two years after the condominium construction at Block D, we searched for a new home. We now have a new home on MacDonnell St near Brock St and have started planting in spring 2007! The new community garden is called the Sunnyside Garden. If you are interested in getting involved or just want to keep up-to-date on our events, please contact us at sunnysidegarden@riseup.net.
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UNDUN
Unified Networkers of Drug Users Nationally is a coalition committed to organizing of local user groups as the basis of an active national movement for harm reduction. UNDUN is networking, organizing, and standing up for users' rights. You can view a video version of our statement of purpose or email us for more information
Working groups are the heart of OPIRG. Volunteers with an interest in a particular issue or project work together to increase public awareness, educate themselves and others, raise funds, or otherwise do work ‘in the public interest’. To start a new OPIRG Kingston working group, please see the application for more information.
To follow updates in all our working groups, use the Working Groups RSS Feed.