Summary

While the WHO considers climate change the greatest challenge facing humanity in the 21st century, the Global Agenda of Social Work and Social Development highlights the importance of social work’s role in the promotion of sustainable communities and environments. Increasingly, social work educational resources are expanding, and educational standards concerned with the environment-ecology are becoming more explicit. However, in francophone Quebec (Canada), the shift required is seismic, as environmental degradation and the climate crisis are rarely evoked in relation to social work education or practice. Furthermore, these crises are not necessarily understood in relation to the devastation and exploitation of indigenous territories, as well as the disproportionate effects on racialized and marginalized communities. Our presentation will present the findings from an exploratory study conducted in Québec to unearth what is known and being done in relation to “green” (signifying the broad umbrella of environmental-ecological considerations) social work. This study was guided by the following research question: How are “green” notions and issues taken up within social work education and practice in Quebec? Further, what are the most relevant and promising concepts and practices related to climate/environmental justice, social inequality/justice, decolonization, and environmental sustainability to promote a “green” paradigm shift in social work theory, education, and practice in Quebec? Conducting focus groups with social work practitioners, educators and students, the research objectives explored :1) what is known about the intersections of environmental-ecological notions and social work theory, education, and practice; 2) what is being done to “green” social work education and practice; and 3) what perspectives encourage the development of a “green” shift within social work theory, education, and practice, in Quebec. This project adopted an anti-oppressive lens to explore “greening” social work, fundamentally upending social work's modernist thinking to inspire a paradigm shift.   

Keywords (separate with commas)

Ecosocial, green social work, practice, education

Summary

The role social work within the context of climate change is to build community expertise  in ways that enhance their ability to prepare and recover from the negative effects of climate change. Literature over the past 30 years suggests that building community resilience is important in mitigating the disastrous effects of climate change and preparing communities for building sustainable futures. The aim of this study was to examine how social workers in Trinidad and Tobago view their roles in climate change and their experiences in building community disaster resilience in  communities affected by disasters caused by climate change such as flooding. The findings show (1) the ways social workers view their roles in building resilient communities to prepare and recover from the effects of climate change (2) the challenges or barriers they encounter in integrating resilience approaches into their practice in communities and (3) the strategies used by social workers which support communities ‘bouncing back’ or  ‘bouncing forward’ from climate change disasters. The findings also show that current approaches do not challenge inequalities and structural barriers which hinder the building of community disaster resilience in Trinidad and Tobago. The study also makes recommendations for strengthening social work education to prepare social workers for their role in climate change and disaster management and concludes with a call for social workers to adopt a more critical approach to building community resilience.

Keywords (separate with commas)

Climate change, community disaster resilience, social work, capital development framework,  critical resilience praxis 

Summary

By the end of 2022, over 108 million people had been forcibly displaced. Most were displaced because of war, conflicts, government persecution, and violence. The number of people displaced last year because of climate disasters is minimally estimated at 32 million. These are difficult numbers to obtain due to varying data collection methods within each country.\ Social workers are crucial workers and researchers to address how climate changes affect individuals, families, and communities. Our ecological theory enables us to understand multi-system factors that contribute to climate crises, as well as the multi-system perspective to be effective in helping individuals, families, and communities, not just during the crisis, but mitigating future crises and caring for those most affected.My international research on culturally-effective health and behavioral health for refugees, has deepened my understanding of the toll forced migration takes on those fleeing and on those accepting them into the new country. The pandemic, supply chain problems, and climate crises has made it clear that our world is interconnected and we are not citizens of a nation as much as we are global citizens whose lives are dependent on each of us working toward a common goal.Social workers need to lead the global effort. This presentation draws from research on forced migration, the ecological theory, and the voices of social workers working in areas devasted by climate crises (ie, floods, fires, heat, droughts). I will present what we know about forced migration and how to provide best practices for those relocating, as well as how to support communities that host the forced migrants. I will demonstrate why our theoretical base prepares us to be effective activists, and how we can work toward solutions. I will present the voices of social workers already working with climate crises.\ 

Keywords (separate with commas)

Refugee, Forced Migration, Climate Crisis, Social Work, Ecological Theory, Human Rights