Social Work Commons^™

Natural Connections: Social Work’S Role In Mending Human And Environmental Relationships, Leah L. Prussia

Doctor of Social Work Banded Dissertations

Just as seasons shift and migration patterns modify in response to human impact, so too must social work. Along with the human contingency silenced by oppression, climate change disproportionately burdens the voiceless: the rooted, Nibi – water, Aki – Earth, winged, fourlegged, swimmers, and crawlers. Though the natural world has become part of social work’s discourse in recent decades, it is time to move beyond contemplative words and take action. This banded dissertation consists of three scholarly products that explore the past and present state of social work’s relationship with the natural environment through the frames of Indigenous knowledge and …