NASW Social Work Talks - EP98: Environmental Justice as Social Work Practice

Episode Date: March 7, 2023

We speak with Christina Erickson, MSW, PhD, about environmental justice. Dr. Erickson is professor and chair of the social work department at Augsburg University. She is author of "Environmental Justice as Social Work Practice," (Oxford University Press, 2018) and "Spanked: How Hitting Our Children Is Harming Ourselves" (Oxford University Press, 2022). She co-developed the environmental studies program at Augsburg and teaches the course Environmental Justice and Social Change. She is the director of Augsburg's BSW program and has directed Environmental Studies. She was on the national working group to develop the Curricular Guide for Environmental Justice in 2020.  Visit the show notes for resources:     

This episode is sponsored by Connect to End COVID-19. Hi, and thanks for tuning in NASW Social Work Talks. I'm your host for this episode, Josh Klaprick, and I'm here today to talk about environmental justice as social work practice. My guest for this episode is Dr. Christina Erickson, the department chair of Augsburg University and one of my professors when I was pursuing my MSW. How are you doing today, Dr. Erickson? I'm doing great. It's so fun to see you, Josh.

I'm really glad that we got a chance to talk about this because we didn't get a lot of chances to discuss it within my program proper. Instead, it was just something we glanced over. So getting a chance to read your book and hear your thoughts is really cool. So starting it off, how would you define environmental justice? Thank you. Thank you. Well, you know, humans and our experiences of nature are not equal across our social identities. And this, our experiences, especially of the benefits of nature and also burdens. And so I look at environmental justice, many people do in this realm of experiences of benefits and burdens, and those are often varied across our social identity categories, like our race and our gender, but also our geography, where we might live,

for sure, our income as well. And when we think about benefits of nature, we have to think about kind of a range of different things. It's not just clean air, which of course is important, But it's also access to things like really beautiful views of nature, you know, having the ability to get to a green space in nature without significant effort, you know, even enough quiet, you know, to really hear the birds sing. These are some of the benefits of nature that are so important to our health and well-being. And part of environmental justice, though, is also the human-made experiences that we all have or how we construct our societies around us. So, um, uh, an environmental burden or benefit might also be things like living in a place where you can walk to a grocery store, um, and get access to healthy food. Um, so these kinds of structures we create in society too, uh, and burdens, I think,

you know, it's, is where we often start when we think about environmental injustices is, is the burdens people experience. um and that can also be a range of things from having a lot of light pollution where you are for example it's really difficult to get darkness because you're in such a dense city area or you don't have have ability to to bring darkness at nighttime um um along with you know areas where may be hard to grow food or access to a variety of foods. And, you know, where you really don't see a lot of natural spaces or green spaces can also be an environmental burden, along with the typical things of pollution or landfills or those kinds of burdens that humans experience.

you know, I think one of the important things, Josh, is that these, the kind of benefits and burdens that were doled out over the course of our life tend to really impact our outcomes over time. And these can be some serious things, like we're a lot happier when we have access to natural spaces. And we, you know, our life is often more easy. It's more pleasant when we have access to options that feel good for us as human beings and maybe match with our culture and who we are as a community. And we know that sometimes these things even lead to things like early death and, you know, real serious loss of quality of life. So environmental justice, is this larger phenomenon and experience, but it has impacts really close to our lived lives.

Yeah. Throughout that, like you said, it kind of touches everything, every area of our lives and every area of the social work practice is something that is, whether we recognize it or not, impacted by environmental justice. Like ease of access was something that I heard throughout that, just walkable access to get green spaces, get things like that. What initially sparked your interest in this area of focus or to dive into the level that you would write a textbook on? Yeah, well, you know, I'm teaching environmental justices right now. And one of the things I ask my students to do is write a personal environmental history paper, really asking us to look at the course of our lives and where were we introduced, what loving adults

were in our lives who maybe attempted to show us and expose us to the benefits of nature, or for some people, really how they were sheltered from natural space or were never given that opportunity for natural space. Um, so, you know, my own, my own love of nature started because I got to play outside as a kid. I had pets that were valued in my family. Um, I got to roll over. I grew to love snow because I got to roll around in it and build structures out of it and, you know, really make it part of my life. And I, you know, had an amazing camping experience when I was a teenager, you know, these kinds of moments that help us really fall in love with nature. And I use that word love really intentionally to help people really recognize that that's what this is

love of our planet, our land, our waters, the animals and plants around us, how important that is to want to move in this direction. But I really, I remember, I remember back in some of my first social service careers, my job, I was one of my early jobs was being a personal care attendant. And I lived in the city and all I visited clients at their homes. And they all lived in the city. And I took the bus or I rode my bike to my clients homes because I could everything was close enough. And my colleagues who were doing this work were getting reimbursed for their mileage because they drove their cars. And I chose to ride my bike or take the bus and I ate that expense myself. You know, I didn't I at that time in my life, I didn't realize that my

environmentalism could be car, could be part of my social work practice. It didn't, it didn't seem possible. This is, you know, the late eighties, early, early 1990s. Um, and so I really see that loss that I didn't advocate for, um, support for riding my bike to see my clients or getting a bus pass paid for by my employer. Um, so that was sort of an, you know, a recognition that um looking back that I had that social work and environmental efforts can go hand in hand when I got my first um job after my master's degree really my first really grown-up job you know I started working in a non-profit um in a in another very urban setting and this is again the early 1990s and into the mid-1990s, I was trying to encourage the organization to respond

to the land that was around us. It was very small pieces of land, but how could we put in some native grasses there? How could we help keep trash from accumulating on our land? How could we bring in art to the agency that reflected the community around us? But to be honest, I felt a little bit corny at times and I wasn't always welcomed, but I, I, as I'm looking back, um, I see that those were the beginnings of my own understanding and recognition that these, these efforts can join forces. I don't have to be a social worker during the day from eight to five, and then become an environmentalist only when I got home, you know, that these things could really marry and join each other. So I started with recycling efforts and I still kind of struggled to find a place

where that was accepted inside the agency. And then when I got my PhD, I, you know, I was reminded in my PhD program that, oh my gosh, Jane Adams worked for parks. You know, she established parks in her, in Chicago. She worked on trash collection because she knew these things had an impact on people's lives. She also set up art centers and things like that. And I really, really kind of went back to those old roots of social work, this profession that I love and feel so deeply about and really recognize that, yeah, we do have a place in this. We do have a place in this environmental movement. And when I started at Augsburg, I gathered with a group of faculty from history and political science and chemistry and biology and we started environmental studies

and now we have a social work course on environmental justice that is required in environment in environmental studies it's also part of the social work major and that really helped me begin to to see how these ideas and theories and concepts and practices really can be knitted together. That's, I, well, I have to say first, I didn't know about Jane Addams environmentalism work. It's oddly enough with everything else that we talk about with her in every class she gets brought up, but that part just doesn't get focused. And I think that's a really interesting thing because I think of hygiene and how much everything has changed since that time i can't imagine what her experience was like working uh with trash

collection at that time because like you said it can feel corny even nowadays to be like have we thought about adding some green space to this very industrial looking mental health facility oh yes it's such a boon like you said with so many studies coming out about the access to green space being such a benefit so something to bring into all walks of life because yeah I think in your book you did an amazing job of like applying the different theories and going through the different stages of practice and then also kind of finding those limitations because social work isn't in all of the seats that it needs to be to make these bigger stage environmentalism changes. But was there one theory, one mindset that you found to be most helpful for galvanization

with organizations? You're going to make me pick one, Josh. Hey, it's I got to get back to you for all of those papers that I had to write that were like, just pick one. Yeah. Yeah, that that is a tough one. You know, when I think of of theories, there's you know, I keep going back to the one I love most, which is structural theory and really the idea that structures are the source of human problems, not the individual themselves, or at least a good portion of them. I don't mean to discount biology or our lived experiences at all, but really lifting up how structures shape our understanding of our own human struggles. So, you know, and that was developed by Maurice Moreau in the 1980s. And he really focused on, you know, issues of class and gender and race,

but it melds so well, I think, with environmental justice issues too. And structural theory really, really knits I think the all of kind of the human oppressions together and and really encourages us to collaborate across the marginalization and the oppressions that humans experience so he he um Maurice Moreau wanted us to see all of them as interconnected in that in that beginning to solve one of those areas will tug at the threads of solving another one of those areas um and And now we know how deeply connected environmental justice issues are to things like racism and our gendered experience, you know, for sure class. So as we begin to, you know, pull away at social justice and racial justice, economic justice, environmental justice, we're going to start to address all of those issues together. Um, and that's really where in so many ways, the environmental movement is headed to, they

recognized that they really need these justice issues if they're going to make headway on environmental issues. Um, and I think, um, it, it helps us also begin to see things like how exploitation of humans and exploitations of earth have these similar kind of systems and outcomes um and so so that theory i think is helpful to us and in all kinds of social work practice um including our environmental justice as well and it helps us see kind of the i don't know like a twisted knot of colonialism and environmental justice and other kinds of white supremacy, for example, and how those things connect to each other? Yeah, I, it immediately makes me think of

because one of my first jobs as well as yours was a personal care assistant. So I was driving all across the Twin Cities and never thought to ride my bike because my brain didn't want to leave that mileage reimbursement on the table. But I definitely agree with the things that you were commenting on, how it's all interconnected, because you go to one area that's more impoverished of the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, and there is less green space, there's less services, there's less access to things like public transportation to get to those green spaces. Whereas in comparison, you get to a place like some of the wealthier suburbs, there's no factories there's no pollutants it's all green space every space is like coordinated like that

and it's when you start looking for it you kind of see those connections everywhere is there an intersection of environmentalism and social justice that their overlap that i might not be thinking of or the viewers might not be oh yeah yeah well you know one of the things i think um is really fun about them is kind of when you lay out the history, kind of like, you know, that time when I was recognizing Jane Addams' efforts at, you know, environmentalism. You know, you can see sort of these kind of this shared pattern of moving forward in social change from the late 1800s when we had strong movements towards saving land. And John Muir, you know, So the person who founded the Sierra Club was working to save natural, beautiful spaces.

And we had really social workers working on in the child saving movement, also imagining that we could we could save children from sort of some of the plights of the difficulties of life. And if you if you move forward, you'll see like in 1964, Carolyn Finney points this out in Black Faces, White Spaces, her book about how and she's not a social worker. She's an environmental studies person, but how the the Civil Rights Act and the Wilderness Act are passed at the same time in the same year. You know, like almost like a beginning to thinking about dignity of natural spaces and humans in new ways. That's, that's what it looks like to me, my own interpretation of, of this, this sense of, of worthiness and dignity. And those, that, that movement really sets the stage for environmental justice to emerge. And those early words around that were environmental racism, when the recognition of landfills, I think this is about 1987, maybe, where landfills are placed in communities of color. And really the data that proved that, you know, that cities were making decisions about where landfills would be placed. And it was racial discrimination. It was environmental racism, as it was coined. Robert Bullard is really considered the father of the environmental justice movement in some ways. He talked about that. That's also about the same time ecofeminism began to emerge, where women begin to talk about domination of women's labor and women's activities as being similar to the domination over land and water and earth.

And so the critical theories that are emerging in this milieu of the environment and really beginning to connect them, those are really the forebearers of environmental justice today. So the connections go back longer, I think, than we realize in social justice and social work as well. Yeah, because I think of how that connects to the modern day and like the placement of landfills has moved from a discussion from where in the city to outsourcing our trash to impoverished countries to essentially move it out of sight, out of mind of people like in the Twin Cities or any kind of urban area in America to a whole other country. and it shows how this issue has just grown and expanded and once again we're back to all of those intersections and but i i love the critical theories because after a certain point it is all interconnected and we do have to take a step back and go okay could anybody have had any bias any even unintentional malice with uh environmental decisions because those things like the Wilderness Act, the national parks, all of that, they're well and good, but who has access

to them? Who has the ease of access to them? There's not a lot of public transport going out to the national parks throughout Minnesota, whereas those are supposed to be public land. Yeah. I mean, these public lands, it's important for us to pause and recognize this amazing resource we have those lands those public lands those are ours we all own them we share them those are for all of us and and they happen at all the different systemic levels um in the u.s and we have our national park system which is beautiful we probably need to change the names of some of the national parks and like you said access there's a few other issues there but nonetheless what a beautiful gift we have given ourselves by having these amazing national parks

and then we have our state parks and in Minnesota we have fabulous state parks I'm sure other states do too and then we also have our county parks and our city parks and then sometimes our faith communities have a little park that they offer the neighborhood they're in because they get it how important it is and our schools often have a park that's part of of where they are so we we have we have this beautiful, amazing system of parks and what a gift that is. And it's, it's you know, it's as important to me as social security or Medicare or a public school system. You know, this, these are ours to own. These are benefits that we have for ourselves as citizens. And they're a beautiful gift for us to nurture and care for. Yeah. Those shared lands and just that,

need to protect what is ours rather than viewing it as something else because it's not close to us I guess gets me thinking of some of the recent environmental disasters that have been occurring such as the train derailment in east Palestine and the health in outcomes that come with that I guess in from your research how does climate change impact health outcomes or I guess environmentalism in general how would you tie that back to health outcomes yeah yeah um climate change really does impact our health and i you know um there's another social worker by the name of um dr leah prussia who really talks about solastalgia she calls it and and how climate change and environmental degradation impacts our our spirit and our emotional health and our mental

health, how we, even if we can't really quite identify it, that the changes in the rituals or patterns of our family life, when we used to plant our garden, or for me, I remember ice skating on Thanksgiving weekend in Minnesota because the lakes were frozen enough. That doesn't happen anymore. These kind of changes in, in our rituals and how we feel in the world around us, how the heat feels different, those kinds of things. And that, that, how that impacts our mental health and the power of that. I think also too, there's kind of some blatant trauma that occurs when we're seeing environmental degradation. You know, you know, like the train derailment that you just talked about, that plume of black smoke that emerges out of that accident is frightening on

the psyche. Imagine being in that town. You know, I'm traumatized by it. It's not in my state. It's hundreds of miles away from me. Imagine the fear for families in that community and parents who have kids with asthma or maybe have a lung disease themselves or just the the fear of how that impacts everything around them um you know this is these are these are traumatic experiences I think so too and and even smaller acts like if I'm walking to work and I see trash which I see plenty of times because I live and work in an urban environment you know how that impacts how i feel about it and kind of what it does to my face and my stomach and you know oh i hate seeing all that trash right compared to when i see you know an area of native grasses and ground

covers and and how that invites me in and you know makes i can feel it in my bones and in my my body and in my brain about how it how it impacts me to look at those two different sites differently. So I, I, I think this is this meant the impacts on our mental health are really real. Not to mention we, we crave solitude and natural spaces often to bring us back to restore us to bring us back to a sense of our understanding of ourselves and our ability to cope with the world around us. You know, that's one of the images of nature that has been pervasive for all of us that it's, it's a place of health and restoration, our natural spaces. But, you know, it also, you know, we can't get away from the fact that it impacts our physical health too. And,

you know, identifying exactly how toxins in the environment impact physical health is really very tricky, right? Because we're each a unique human being and, you know, we can't, We don't measure exposures to toxins necessarily or pollution, you know, or can't measure the frequency in which someone experiences those things. So, you know, those are harder to pinpoint, but we really do know a few things about it. For example, like heat, heat waves are really dangerous, especially for people in the very young ages or the very old ages of the human lifespan. Heat can be really dangerous for those groups. Um, and partly because they, you know, you, they might need the care of other people. Um, and they might not recognize their own difficulties in, in managing those temperature

changes. Um, we also know that during heat waves, we tend to be more violent as a community. You know, um, I know I'm more crabby when I'm, when I'm hot, overly hot and I can't cool off. So it makes sense that maybe community violence or family violence, family conflict could really increase during those kinds of times. Certainly, it's a stressor on our family systems. It's a stressor on our community systems if we can't cool ourselves. So, and, you know, this, this whole climate change is so connected to wildfires and ozone depletion and all these things that really impact all of us, you know, everybody's going to feel that in some way or way or shape or form you can't, you know, in at some point income is not going to shelter you from environmental degradation so they are real.

Engage in NASW's National Connect to End COVID-19 campaign today. It's a CDC-funded initiative to support social workers and their clients in informed vaccine decision-making. NASW and the NASW Foundation are partnering with the University of Texas at Austin Steve Hicks School of Social Work to provide national webinars, chapter trainings, tools, and information that promote vaccine confidence among social workers and equip them to support clients in informed vaccine decision-making. Visit NASW's website to learn more and join the campaign. I hadn't even considered the mental health aspect of the impact of climate change, but you're definitely right when I think of all of the discussions of forever chemicals

and then the other, the lead that is still everywhere from use in paints And then the things that depleted the ozone, you hear about thing after thing after thing that is slowly eating away at the world. And it does create this kind of pseudo despondency of like, well, I, this happened before I was born or before I was able to make decisions. And now I am stuck with it in ways that, like you said, can't be measured. And then there's just straight up the physical health aspect. And yeah, income can only get so helpful because, yes, you might have access to water to stay cool. But when that water is suddenly in your home because of rising sea levels, it doesn't really matter.

Absolutely. So what ways can you think of for social workers to help mitigate some of these challenges? Like, even if it's just like when Minnesota or somewhere else hits that, nearing that, it's wet bulb is the phrase I've heard, that dangerous level of heat. Like, what can we do to help the people we serve or even ourselves and our communities? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, specifically with heat. I think you're reminding me of a journal article I wrote several years ago about heat waves and, you know, what can social workers do? Absolutely.

Well, some of the things that we have to recognize is that heat is more serious in the urban core because heat rises more quickly inside those where buildings are close together and there's a lot more concrete and not a lot of natural greens to absorb some of that heat. So there are places where it is more dangerous during heat waves, and those are generally inside the urban cores, sometimes inside very tall buildings. And these might be older buildings where they don't have reliable cooling systems as well. So that's part of it, is knowing your geography, that some social workers have to take care of this more than others. The other thing is, I would say for sure, you need kind of knowledge and awareness, especially about those two ends of the lifespan, beginning and end of the lifespan, that new parents need to understand that infants have a hard time adjusting to heat and they need to move to a cooler space for their child's safety. And then community center, communities need to have centers in place, whether it's a public library or maybe a school or some other kind of community center someplace that has, if not air conditioning, at least structures that are cooler inside of them, possibly, you know, maybe, maybe a gymnasium or something. But to get into places where people can safely ride out that heat wave. I mean, that's number one, because the danger is so clear. The other thing is kind of a checking on each other kind of system, especially for elderly people who might be living alone, who might not know that they're not drinking enough, or that they, you know, could do some things to move air in where they're living. You know, so a system of really checking on people. And I think, you know, we kind of need that, that knowledge and public awareness, much like we have about, you know, the dangers of smoking, so that it feels closer to each individual to recognize the dangers of experiencing too much heat, you know, and where that can happen.

So really building those communities, you know, then the other thing is, is we got to look forward, you know, plant a tree now, it, you know, it may not help your city this moment with, with this summer's heat waves, but it will help in the future. So we, we have to be doing those mitigation efforts that have longer term payoff as well. yeah the saying I think of is the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago the second best time is right now which it's interesting the fact that we're talking about environmentalism and thinking about those green spaces but when it comes to heat waves I'm thinking of indoor public spaces places where it's we all have access to to stay safe and with

the kind of decline of malls, which for a while were kind of a safe public space to be in air conditioning. I can't count the number of times that I just went to the Mall of America to walk around because it's air conditioned. But especially during the pandemic, that gave rise to just kind of this awareness that there aren't a lot of public spaces that you can sit in without paying. So it feels like a good place for social workers to get out there and advocate for the reinvigoration of those community spaces those community centers yeah and and they need to be in in in close proximity to where people are and there need to be multiples of them right we need we need them sprinkled throughout our cities yeah it can't just be a well you've got the one

because once again we get back to access we get back to ease of access because it doesn't matter if there's air conditioning at the end if you have to walk for three miles through 110 degree or maybe it's a space you're not really sure you feel culturally comfortable going to you know for other reasons so you we want a variety of spaces um where where people can feel welcomed as well as safe yeah we've talked a lot about uh the environmental impacts on humans but you've kind of mentioned our impact on the earth uh what kinds of things can social workers do to mitigate the impact on the earth and animals to try to maintain our kind of some more equilibrium our relationship with the planet that we all find ourselves on yeah you know i think you know one of the things

we need to do social workers and everybody is is really think about de-centering ourselves from the story of the world around us and think about ourselves in relation to land and and air and water and animals and plants around us really kind of kind of begin with decentering ourselves so that we can really have genuine and sincere relationships you know and I think about the ways we've begun to peel back white supremacy and how important that has been in developing ways of being anti-oppressive social workers, how we need to move into that space. I think of this as somewhat akin to that, that part of it is dismantling our privileges and supremacies about nature and animals and earth around us and and really view things differently that we have to begin

with all of us um who've who have not really been able to see the ways we're enacting injustices on our earth around us um can you say your question one more time sorry no it's totally fine i did want to jump in and say i think of uh in class you showed us that video of like unpredictable animal pairs where it's just a friendship between two animals you wouldn't think of and that's kind of one of the things that jumps to my mind with decentering us it's like animals have relationships that aren't human instigated it's not like it's like oh i made them friends it's just like no animals and the earth find ways to have relationships without humans so the question was uh how can we mitigate or like

begin to impact the climate change how climate change affects animals on the earth right right i'll i'll i want to touch on that biophilia ideal which is really that living things want to be in relation to each other um and it is not through us as as human beings but um you know we we looked at that few minutes of unique animal pairings where the fox and the deer are friends, those kinds of things where we have these unexpected, like, oh my gosh, they have relationships that have nothing to do with us, right? And so that idea that though, that we biophilia, that living things want to lean into loving relationships with other living things is really a kind of an astounding recognition on the the beauty and care that living things have for each other that

is is beyond our thinking you know we you know of course we also animals and humans also eat meat we um participate in resource extraction but we have this profound idea and and need all of us as living things to, um, to really love into each other and across relationships that we don't expect. Um, I, you know, and you mentioned things like, you know, what, what can social workers do, you know, to really think about how they're, I think what, you know, one of the things that is superbly important is for social workers to think about their organizations and I, um, where you know where that organization is what land is it on what water bodies is it near you know how do humans experience entering that building how um how does it are there plants

inside the building are there is it is it is the garbage picked up on the outside is there dignity in the art does it reflect the community um does it show this kind of connection to the economies close to the to the social service agency the social work area the social work center the community center wherever the social worker is to begin to really think about how that space reflects that and also to you know not be afraid you know I was describing how I felt kind of corny like let's start the recycling you know back in 1992 and really you know just sort of accept that and move into, let's have a green committee here. What do you think about stewarding our space and our land? Can we have an environmental group, a committee? Can we have some

decision-making power for the agency? And maybe just, you know, beginning to get together and really to make a menu of options that fits where you are in your community. You know, what state you're in what city you're in who are the people who come there you know what what fits for all of them to really think about bringing forth this spirit of environmental justice in a lived way in the organization you're at i mean i love the idea too of organizations getting very specific and thinking about um having things like a green fee you know like every grant that comes in has a 1%, you know, sustainability fear or a source of income that the agency, the nonprofit can pull aside and even, you know, tell their funding bodies, hey, this is a commitment we're

making because you put it in your mission statement or, you know, your goals for your organization for the next few years. Really, you know, where can you begin to integrate these kind ideas into the life of the agency so that the people who work there feel it, the people who come in for services begin to feel it. And it becomes kind of a natural, natural part of how the organization begins to operate. Yeah. Well, if there's one thing that social workers are good at, it's having those tough conversations about introducing something new to change things for the better. And I think you're right about just, it doesn't have to be an overhaul, just simply having recycling bins. I'm a lot more likely to recycle if it's easier. I mean, just straight up

as a consumer, it's a lot easier to recycle if I don't end up walking through three levels of a building trying to find the one recycling bin that some committee 10 years ago decided to put out. Yeah. And yeah, I think that's a good segue because it's for me, environmentalism and environmental justice, the way I perceive it is a very macro focused issue. It's these big polluters, these big bad actors or these big changes that feel so much bigger than me or any practice I have or my impact on the community. So in hearing that, how might somebody like me start to make those changes or bring those changes to my organization or failing that to my own life? Yeah, yeah. So so we can bring them small. And it's I think it's important to to recognize this is for everybody. This is, nature is a blessing for all of us, and we have a right to access it and experience it, to have that kind of the health benefits, mental health and physical benefits of being able to be in nature. So if we start with that notion, we can begin to say, hey, we should integrate that, right?

We wouldn't pull away education for children because they have a right to an education. Well, we have a right to have access to beautiful natural spaces. That's the world as it stands naturally. So when we think of it as endemic, it becomes like, hey, we've got to do that. You know, that's part of, I remember the first social work textbook I could find that included in it's like how to do an assessment as a social worker. um it was written in 1998 and it was um by lock garrison and winship and they asked questions like in they suggested questions in the assessment phase like how does weather and climate climate or um even you know the the terrain and land you live in how is that affecting you and how you feel and how you get access to the sources you need um it had a little bit of a rural spin to it, but I could definitely see it applied to urban areas too, you know, that, that that really mattered. So really beginning with our understanding and engaging with our

clients on their stories and who and what is important to their lives, you know, that their pets may be extremely important in their life and a source of resiliency, a source of emotional support. I had a client I visited with and she lived in an apartment that almost felt like an arboretum when I went in there. It was so full of plants and it was beautiful and it actually was in some way, you know, it enhanced her social life too because she propagated plants and shared them with her friends. And she was kind of an isolated person, but this had so many more benefits just than she had plants in her house. And if I paid attention and talked about how the plants were a segue for her own self-care, for her social relationships, I could see

how that was far more expansive than just being a person with a lot of beautiful plants in her house you know it was really an expression of her too it was almost like her art form you know it was a beautiful thing so as we as we integrate this into our you know what are what are the the forms the questions that a social worker in an organization or in a government system uses to get to know a family how do you let them tell the full story of what maybe their land means to them or their loss of their land or, you know, the space around them, their neighborhood, their community? How do these things filter into their life in ways that can be supportive or sometimes may be stressful because there is a landfill too close to home. And as much as we talk about the

benefits of recycling, recycling centers can be pretty toxic too. So even being near a recycling plant, you know, how that impacts the way a community feels about itself and its space and how they use the land around them. I think too, you know, when we move into the intervention phase of social work practice, really helping people think about the problems they're facing, you know, we can push outward a little bit and really, you know, I mean, Some of the, some of the most easiest ones, examples to grab onto here are like, you know, children who are not having enough big motor activity outside, you know, where they're not able to run and jump and play and roll and hide and tuck and crouch and reach all these things that are so good for kids development. and you know often come from having enough space to move around in outside um how might how might that be part of an intervention plan for a family is just like really big outdoor just playing

you know moving moving bodies or or even just for for kids how might um recognition that getting healthy food in a wide variety has been challenging and how that might impact a family's life, how that can be a part of an intervention plan is to figure out what's the source of that barriers and how can that be changed for a family so that they can feel better physically and like their food is closer to their own culture, closer to their own health, matches what they need. as a family. And then maybe, you know, I think, you know, groups, group work, social work, social work and groups, we're pretty good at this getting out in nature thing. We've kind of figured out that being in nature with other people is hugely bonding. And there's been, you know,

challenge courses for groups to use, you know, big camping events, therapeutic interventions that are literally outdoors and beautiful wilderness spaces to you know address variety of challenges people face like you know overuse of substances or you know struggles with eating any of those kind of things where so group work has really kind of figured this out and they have a pretty long history of of paying attention to that but we could do this in family work too you know how can we help families, you know, enjoy and access the space around them, see their own space that they have, their own land, and how they can make that more environmentally nurturing to them or their family. So we all really want, you know, moments of fresh air, you know, just thinking

about a breeze, you know, just the right kind of breeze and, you know, digging in the soil because I'm going to plant something, you know, this is all therapeutic for all of us. And our clients too, you know, and we want to make sure they have access to that kind of, that kind of natural therapeutic intervention. That is so good. I mean, sometimes I really need to weed the yard, you know because i'm not using anything to kill my weeds i go out there and i pull them myself and it does something good for my heart and soul it takes a little time and then also a few years ago i started to shift and i realized that well the clover isn't a weed you know i'm i'm gonna i'm gonna remove that idea from my head yeah and accept the clover as a beautiful part of my yard

now and and that helps helps me shift and think through my own life in so many ways that that kind of natural therapeutic intervention yeah just uh something you said of uh plants being an art form as somebody that's killed enough plants it's definitely an art form like it is not something that you just like take care of them and it's very clear but you're definitely like it's something that i think we all have a natural desire to be a part of it's just something that uh we uh i guess western society as a whole has kind of decentralized a equal relationship with the environment instead it's the environment as a means to an end for us and speaking of which most of the polluters most of the big issues that are occurring due to climate change are because of some big corporations

and i hear so much pushback and i i mean i feel it myself why do i have a paper straw when there's like a giant oil spill call caused by an oil company and they go we're sorry and that's the end of it so how can we reframe to bring some hope and motivation back to people like me that want to make the change but just feel so outweighed by a couple people in suits making decisions yeah i i can really relate to you so much josh um in my own years of thinking working about these things you know the war in ukraine i or war on ukraine is really a good example of that too and I, when we see the destruction and lives lost on the news, I see deep environmental degradation as well. And, um, it can be disheartening to think how, how these little things I'm trying to do,

you know, is this, is this really, is this really it? So, um, but I, I, I have to keep reframing it and it's, you know, I have conversations with my fellow social workers. I mean, that's one of the great things about NASW is you get to connect with your other social workers and have like, how are you coping with this kind of conversation? So those are really important. And, and, you know, when I feel kind of the most disheartened, I think, you know, I think my job is to just drive a wedge in, I just need to make, make a wedge, which is going to make a little bit of a crack in a problem. And it's gonna, it's gonna grow from there. Because I have this community of other social workers around me and around the nation and around the world. And we're each

driving in these little tiny wedges. And it's, it's going to take down the, you know, the worst of these, these ugly giants, kind of as you described them, these forces that feel so hard to penetrate at time, these, these problems. Um, and then I think, you know, I, I am so appreciative of being a social worker because I can go to work every day and come home and feel like I'm trying, I'm trying to make the world a better place. And I'm not going to bed feeling guilty about the how i trashed the earth or how i'm not caring about racism or i'm you know not dealing with you know economic disparities and we're all trying in like these different ways to drive these wedges in and make these cracks and and if we think of ourselves in community then

it's helpful yeah um but i'd i would also say too that um having you know we do have to find our joy in the work, you know, along with, you know, feeling really proud of being a social worker, really happy that I chose this profession that is so meaningful to me. I think that when we, when we find some joy in our work and recognize that it does fulfill us, you know, choosing that paper straw makes you feel a little bit better. and even if it does make the coffee a little bit challenging towards the end maybe yeah could be but you know it it really it it it it we can find joy in those efforts because it matches our values so much and that's a good way to live you know it's just a really good way to live for

sure definitely i guess on a more positive note what are some of your favorite organizations or groups working towards addressing environmental justice oh yeah yeah yeah thank you um well you know we already talked about the park system i think that's a really important one but i really i really like um trust for public lands but partly because they're really they're making an effort to get a park near everybody you know they really collect data on how close people are to parks and green spaces and and recognizing that we need those spaces everywhere I love the idea of of saving the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone these are fantastic places but something about it also smacks of some kind of hierarchy of natural beauty. And, and I love the plains

of the Midwest. And I think we've, you know, lots of people have grown to respect the plains too, but there's really nature everywhere. So I love this idea of making sure we, we nurture the small all natural spaces and all in all kinds of places in our social structures and in our communities. And I think trust for public lands has that kind of idea in their head. You know, we can't, I don't think we can ignore the big greens as they're called like the Sierra club and the Audubon society and the world wildlife Federation.

These are huge international organizations that all started out looking at you know animals birds land nature as their who they were protecting and who they were caring for but you'll see that in the last few years they have wisened up as they needed they need to do and they have recognized that those spaces aren't going to be cared for without racial and social justice as as part of that storyline that humans have a huge impact on these natural spaces so they've actually, in so many ways, recognized what social work has known, that we need this critical lens of social, economic, environmental, racial justice to really make movement for environmental spaces too. So I think that's good news for us. We should feel really proud

that that they need us now that we have a language and methods and ways of of creating social change from the micro to the macro level that other organizations need so we can we can feel really good about that and note that we have a place in this movement yeah um the i can't go without saying i found a new one called intersectional environmentalists which i think is really fun i follow them on Instagram. Um, and they're really about lifting up diverse voices, BIPOC voices in the environmental movement. Um, and they feel very youthful and, um, they have, you know, they use radical language, which is, um, pretty exciting. So I, I really, I really like them too. We of course have our, you know, eco social work, Facebook groups that you can find. Um,

There are some listservs that share information. These go by green social work, eco social work, sometimes enviro social work. So you might have to play with different terms like that to really capture all of them. And then, you know, we really can't ignore the fact that we have some fabulous things around us like our public libraries. That's a place to share books and videos and resources, right? In a sense, that is an organization that wants access to information and provides it for free and doesn't make everybody buy their own version, their own copy. And we have our food co-ops and our bike co-ops and our housing co-ops. So if you drill down to closer to our human lives, there's all these other organizations that are good for us, for most people in their own communities.

Yeah. Oh, we just got a question from Gregory Wright. I'll pick that up. If you are a social work student, how do you get into this field? What is the job outlook of environmental social work? Yeah, yeah, I love it. Well, I'd say the job outlooks are growing, you know, steadily. How do you get into this field? I think, you know, a couple things, you know, all social work students do field placements or, um, a practicum, um, before they graduate. And so beginning to really carve out, if a student can't find an, an environmental justice practicum, um, they should, which they might be able to do. I, I, I wouldn't put it, I wouldn't put past, you know, looking at some of these big organizations or community centers about how

you could possibly, these big greens, for example, about being a social worker inside their organizations. But if you're not in an environmentally specific organization, begin to carve out how it can look where you're at. What does promoting environmental justice look like in a community mental health center, in a school? You know, how can you begin to play with some of those ideas and begin to build a career that has environmental justice as a focus of it. I also really encourage social workers not to limit themselves to traditional social work spaces for work. The way we think and the way we approach problems and our efforts to understand and assess the situation and, you know, create interventions. You know, our commitment to ameliorating injustices

is attractive to a lot of different kinds of employers. So don't pass up, you know, energy agencies in wherever you live, Gregory. City and state and county jobs that are related to this um you know our on my campus our sustainability officer is a social worker for example um so there are there are places i think that are surprising about where we're finding ourselves inside the environmental movement um so i would definitely look at those non-profits you will be well poised to work inside those agencies too and then when you need to talk to other social workers. You can always come to NASW to find that reconnection of trying to fight that battle in those organizations that aren't surrounded by other social workers.

I think that's true. In some settings, you may be the only social worker inside that agency, not just in environmental agencies, but for example, even in a school, you might be the only social worker in that school, surrounded by lots of teachers. So that's where NASW and these communities can really help us find each other and speak to our shared interests. Yeah. And remind us that we're not alone. A comment that I didn't get a chance to comment on from, I believe, Gender is Whack, which great name, was the reason that they make those choices for things like paper straws is the community. It's remembering that we're all making that wedge as you described it and knowing that you're not the only person trying to make that wedge to make

those changes. Uh, and so I guess we're nearing the end of our time. Uh, is there anything else that you would like to add Dr. Erickson before we open it up to any other questions? Um, I think, you know, if I were to say like a couple parting words, I would say that, um, the environmental justice movement needs us. And when I first started out and I couldn't see how environmental work and social work could be paired. I couldn't see how they could work together. I felt like I didn't know enough. I now know that that's exactly the opposite. The environmental movements need us. That is a space for us to be participating. You may not know the numbers about carbon sequestration or changing to solar kilowatt hours, those kinds of things. That's not necessary.

It is about the human connections of people and the skills that we bring to social work. So go for it. You know, I'd also say, you know, I really came to this work because of my love of nature. And so I think we should just say it. You know, we love nature and animals and the things around us. And that's got to be the driver of the work that we do. and I think in social work we've kind of shied away from love because we have to be careful that we're you know we're um not crossing boundaries but um this this real commitment to loving nature

around us is an important driver and it sustains us yeah and don't forget that being a social worker is a really great job I mean there is really I can't think of I've been a social worker for 30 years. There's no better time to join this world of social work. It's such a blessing. It truly is. And there's so much opportunity and so much optimism to be found just in everywhere. Like you said, if you drill down far enough, you will find environmental action and social justice action everywhere you look. So it doesn't look like we've got any more questions. So Dr. Erickson, I will let you go face the snowpocalypse that I also have to face. And I thank you so much for your time. It's been so great. Josh, this is such a treat, right? We were one student and

professor, now we're colleagues out in the world. I love this. I feel like I could have asked you so many more questions. So it feels like a part two is necessary. Future chances. Great. Thank you so much. Thank you, NASW. Thank you. Thank you all. Thank you.