Representatives from various student organizations are coming together to collaborate their efforts for social change on campus.

Progressive Alliance is an open forum that will be held once a month for campus leaders to meet and create networks among other leaders of progressive organizations on campus.

Global AIDS Initiative President Beth Hardy said the main linking factor between the groups is the desire to make a change and a difference in the world.

"All groups focus on making a change in policy," Hardy said.

Theresa Haas, a Penn State Amnesty International member, said the alliance is designed to increase awareness and take action on issues such as human rights and environmental concerns on campus.

Haas added that another advantage of the Progressive Alliance is to allow representatives to discuss upcoming events to gain more outside support and to prevent events from overlapping.

Planning for the alliance began last spring, and is a continuation of a group that existed two years ago but became inactive after members graduated.

Haas said that there was a strong interest of many progressive groups on campus to revive the Progressive Alliance, and she contacted various organizations that she thought would be interested.

"This has been brewing for a long time," Haas said.

Waste Not, one of the organizations involved in the Progressive Alliance, is a project that takes leftover food from the dining halls to local shelters such as Centre House and Stormbreak Runaway Shelter.

Waste Not President Erin O'Brien said the project joined the Progressive Alliance because the members are interested in making connections with other organizations and spreading the idea of the project.

"The type of people who are involved are willing to help out," she said.

Waste Not volunteers show up at the dining halls each night after the halls close around 7 p.m. and drive to the shelters to drop off food.

"It's a very practical way to make use of some of the resources on campus and bring it out to the local community," O'Brien said.

Unitarian Universalists President Rachel Evans said the organization decided to join the Progressive Alliance because it has a lot of ideas in common with the other organizations.

Vicky Killion, president of Rescue Childhood, said the Progressive Alliance serves as a resource for progressive organizations and incoming students who want to get involved in community service.

"It's basically a support group to bounce off ideas for different events and also to share what our groups are about," Killion said.