Mohammad Akbar

In 2017 I was hired to work a temporary contract at OPIRG Brock.

OPIRG is a loose network of organizations across Ontario that were created to use the “Public Interest Research Group” model created by Ralph Nader to build action for social change.

My contract was as disorientation week coordinator. Essentially the role was as simple as hosting a series of events for the beginning of the academic year. I entered OPIRG Brock during a period of transition. Former staff had left for greener pastures (and also because there was significant interpersonal conflict, a key part of the OPIRG world), and I was brought in to take on the disorientation week after a competitive hiring process.

What I found was the following:

-There was no clear website

-There was no clear branding for either disorientation week or OPIRG Brock itself

-The organization was facing multiple threats of defunding.

As part of my efforts I rebuilt OPIRG Brock’s social media presence, in particular on Facebook, and commissioned Artist Sonali Menezes to create a new logo for OPIRG Brock. This aided in giving OPIRG Brock a unique visual identity that is still used to this day.

I developed a unique branding for Disorientation Week, providing a mini brand that could have been used over the years to build student and community awareness of OPIRG Brock’s services, advocacy and activism.

I also curated unique, progressive events focused on social and environmental justice while also incorporating free food, social time and fun. Often activism is treated as an extremely inaccessible activity by individuals who benefit socially and financially through their personal ties to activism and presence as professional activists. In my view this is often detrimental to the movements these individuals end up in, as they develop a uniquely para social relationship to the organizations and movements they are part of which ultimately holds the organizations back and focuses its periphery on the goals of these individuals.

While I was finishing my contract, permanent positions were opened up at OPIRG Brock. At the time I pursued other opportunities elsewhere. My motivation for this was empathy for members of the OPIRG Brock community who were unable to secure gainful full time employment elsewhere. I would over time learn that empathy is possibly my greatest weakness.

Posters from Disorientation Week(more pictures to come):

One of our events secured over 1000 likes on Instagram, a record for any single event at any PIRG in Canada as far as I am aware: