Environmental Justice and Social Work: A Study across Practice Settings in Three U.S. States

Abstract

Environmental justice is essential for improved quality of life and sustainable wellbeing. This study examines how environmental issues and related injustices are surfacing in U.S. social work practice and social work readiness to respond, and what resources social workers are most interested in. Data are from an online survey of U.S. social workers (N = 337) in Colorado, Ohio, and Tennessee. Participants answered questions about their social work background, current job, environmental issues in practice, resources, and demographics. Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics. For nine issues, at least 30% of participants reported these as surfacing sometimes or often, with the highest being poor food access (74.7%), extreme cold (58.8%), and poor green space access (43.9%). The extent varied by years of experience, job setting, and practice level. Meanwhile, fewer than 40% of social workers indicated that they were somewhat or very prepared to respond to eight out of nine issues. Interest was higher in the resources that could be used for responding to specific topics rather than environmental justice broadly. In addition to strengthening social work education regarding environmental justice, this study suggests that national, state, and local social work associations can—in partnership with growing numbers of social work scholars working on environmental justice—create and provide training, templates, and guidance for practitioners that are tailored to specific environmental justice issues.