Service

"The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others." - Mahatma Gandhi

Omega Phi Alpha is a National Service Sorority. Among our incomparable sense of sisterhood and our value for friendship and leadership, service is an important part of Omega Phi Alpha. Our sisters participate in service projects every week. These range from going to the local Austin soup kitchen to help prepare and serve food for the homeless, to aiding a local nonprofit organization prepare books for underprivileged students around Austin.

6 Areas of Service

Omega Phi Alpha participates in six main areas of service, listed below.

1. Service to the Sisterhood
Sisters show their passion for OPA by helping prepare for our National Service Week and Aids
Week. We talk to potential vendors, make posters and signs, and work together to plan the
events OPA will be hosting throughout the week.

2. Service to the University Community
Members participate in service activities that promote the betterment of the university. In the
past, sisters have volunteered at events including Explore UT – a university wide open-house,
and Longhorn Halloween – a Halloween carnival organized for the children of UT staff, faculty,
and students.

3. Service to the Community at Large
Sisters of OPA go off campus to give back to the community of Austin. Working with
organizations such as Keep Austin Beautiful, and Boys and Girls Club gives us the opportunity to
break away from the campus we know so well, and contribute to the community we live in.

4. Service to the Nations of the World
This area of service encourages members of OPA to be internationally minded, and to be aware of the rest of the world around us. We have worked with Hostelling International, a local hostel that hosts travelers from around the world, and White Rose Society, an organization that spreads awareness of genocide and racial discrimination.

5. Permanent Project
The permanent cause for Omega Phi Alpha is mental health. Mental health serves as the focal
point for our permanent project. Service projects concerning mental health are defined as
projects that improve the mental wellbeing of others. Every year, throughout the semester,
the sisters of Omega Phi Alpha, Tau Chapter, go to Carita's Soup Kitchen in downtown Austin to help prepare and serve food to those who are in need.

6. President's Project
Every year, the national president of Omega Phi Alpha chooses a cause that the sorority will
focus on that year. OPA's National Service Week is dedicated to spreading awareness of this
cause and to ameliorate the conditions it causes. Some of the past president's projects include,
but are not limited to domestic violence, literacy, women's health, and cultural diversity.

Service Weeks

Aside from participating in service projects at the University of Texas campus and in Austin, Omega Phi Alpha also hosts a National Service Week (NSW). NSW is a week devoted to creating a campus-wide awareness of a cause chosen by the national OPA President that year. Throughout that week, we host: service events that provide participants with the opportunity to contribute at a grassroots level, fundraisers to raise money to donate to larger efforts towards the cause, and lectures given by professionals more familiar with the cause, all of which is open to the general UT population. Through all of these different events we work to create awareness and spread the word.

Join Omega Phi Alpha, and become part of a sisterhood that thrives off of being able to give back to the community, a sisterhood that thrives off of service.