Social Work Commons^™

Creating Social Responses To A Changing Environment, Susan Kemp, Lawrence A. Palinkas, Lisa Reyes Mason, Shanondora Billiot, Felicia M. Mitchell, Amy Krings

Social Work: School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Other Works

Enhancing social work’s socioenvironmental impact is central to creating social responses to a changing environment, the Grand Challenge for Social Work detailed in this chapter. Worldwide, communities face unprecedented environmental change and degradation. Although climate change, extreme weather events, disasters, and other environmental challenges threaten the health, well-being, and survival of all people, their impacts fall most heavily on marginalized populations. Social work has a critical role to play in crafting social responses to these escalating threats. This chapter summarizes the activities of the Grand Challenge to Create Social Responses to a Changing Environment in five main areas: disaster preparedness …