Caily Grube is creating lasting impact — beyond litter cleanup — at Allegheny CleanWays

For over 25 years now, Etna-based Allegheny CleanWays has been working to combat illegal dumping and litter in the Pittsburgh region. The nonprofit’s work is twofold — it helps convene and organize community cleanup events on both land and in our region’s rivers, and it conducts educational outreach, research and advocacy to help residents feel empowered to take pride in their communities and shared spaces and adopt anti-litter habits. Since 2023, Caily Grube has led Allegheny CleanWays’ efforts, bringing with her a decade of nonprofit leadership experience. Over the past year especially, the organization has seen its efforts ramp up with a coordinated cleanup campaign ahead of the city hosting the 2026 NFL Draft in April. That included raising around $1 million from supporters, organizing cleanup events throughout the city, cleaning up hundreds of tons of litter and receiving funding to ensure that 50 miles of highway leading into and out of downtown will receive regular litter maintenance for the next two years.

Tell me about your career journey so far and how you got into this line of work.

It wasn’t a straight line. I started as a writer and a poet. I was really focused on making that my career, and I was writing and publishing and reading. My path shifted, but what I think poetry and writing helped train me to do was to pay close attention to language and people and what might not be said and what does get said, and who gets to say it. And then my master’s in social work helped deepen that instinct. At the core of social work for me is the belief in collective action, and that really drives what I want to be doing professionally. I really believe that when people organize together around shared spaces or shared stakes, we can build a community that we all want to live in.