Social Work and the CRH
Social Work and the CRH
Kelly Hopkins, LMSW
Social Work Program Director
Kansas Wesleyan University
September 20, 2023
Since arriving at Kansas Wesleyan in 2019, I have been an active participant on the team that launched the Community Resilience Hub. 我一直有一颗照顾我们的地球的心，经常被产生的垃圾数量所困扰. For as long as I can remember growing up and as an adult, I have always had something growing in my small backyard garden, 但最近我丈夫和我开始在我们的后院增加我们的食物系统，用凸起的花园床, canning, and eventually a handful of chickens. 在一个严重依赖全球化粮食体系的国家，我们正在拥抱更加自力更生的机会.
As director of the social work program, my contributions to the CRH team are primarily academic. 我一直在与一个跨学科的教师团队合作，开设一门环境正义的辅修课程，该课程将设在社会工作系. That statement often draws questionable looks, and inevitably I find myself explaining how social work and environmental justice intertwine.
The simple answer is that social workers are social change agents. Their work contributes to the overall health of a community. They work closely with individuals, families, and public and private agencies to ensure that people have the resources they need to be safe, healthy, 并得到公正对待——这是发展社区恢复力和环境可持续性的组成部分. 社会工作领域的专业人员和研究人员正在认识到并解决因贫困程度而加剧的新的环境挑战, inequitable access to resources, and uneven power relations. Social workers are essential to the conversations and strategies that lead to healthy, resilient, and thriving communities.
千亿国际登录社会工作如何与社区恢复力相交叉的问题，更深层次的答案有点学术性, so bear with me.
The main goal of social work is to promote social change and development, social cohesion, and the empowerment and liberation of people. Social workers are equipped with values, knowledge, and skills for making social change, 以社会正义和个人人权的解放价值和原则为指导, group, societal, and global levels (Rambaree, 2020). Social work is often referred to as a vital agent of social change in society. 社会工作者有职业义务和道德责任为所有人创造更好的生活环境的条件和机制.
Social work originated with a focus on the “Person-in-Environment” perspective. 这种观点是一种实践指导原则，强调了社会工作从业者对人类有良好理解的重要性, considering the environmental contexts in which they live, act, and react with others.
Within the context of sustainable development, 全球都在呼吁社会工作教育和实践通过环境社会工作转向以生态为中心的范式. 在社会工作和社会发展的全球议程中，致力于环境和社区可持续性已被确定为四个优先领域之一(Gray等人)., 2013; Rambaree et al., 2019).
Environmental change/climate emergency and their associated societal impacts, such as poverty, migration/displacement, and famine, 使社会工作在其教育和实践中考虑环境可持续性成为一种义务.
环境社会工作及其推论——灾难社会工作——越来越多地被实践，因为社会工作者面临着与受损环境中的人们一起工作的挑战. 这些新兴的实践领域凸显了社会工作者越来越需要挑战加剧环境退化的做法, to incorporate sustainability and environmental consciousness as critical areas of practice, and to undertake disaster preparation, planning, response, 以及适应战略，以帮助社区在面对环境威胁时建立能力和响应能力(奥尔斯顿), 2023).
社会工作者的社区发展技能可以使他们与寻求解决邻里或社区环境中的粮食安全问题的基层组织者合作, 而社会工作者开发的项目管理和行政技能可以帮助创建有效的项目，努力以整体的方式解决这些需求.
As social movements to address food security involve individuals, families, and communities, 社会工作者对个人和社区的生物-社会-心理-文化现实的考虑可以有助于以有效和文化主管的方式解决与食品有关的问题.
The likelihood of success in implementing a socially just, sustainable, 在社会工作者的参与下，城市农业倡议将大大加强. Social work has never been singularly involved in the assessment, intervention, and treatment of individual psychological conditions. 它还具有倡导政策变革和在社区实践背景下进行宏观干预的历史遗产. 早期的先驱往往是宏观层面的改革者，他们不仅在个人层面上寻求改变，而且在邻里环境中寻求改变, community, state, and even national levels (Besthorn, 2013).
鉴于其理论和实践方面的历史遗产的丰富性和质感, 社会工作处于一个独特的位置，可以考虑在其独特的社会文化环境中为个人和社区的最佳利益服务的多个交叉视角(Carrillo), 2007). For example, 社会工作者可以作为跨学科团队的熟练成员，解决低收入城市社区的粮食获取和可持续生产问题.
对文化能力有强烈承诺的社会工作者在促进与社区成员和不同种族群体的关系方面处于战略地位. As that relationship is developed, people are given a greater voice in the solution of their problems.
社会工作者对城市可持续农业倡议作出贡献的另一种方式是通过他们对社区需求进行全面评估的能力, resources, and strengths. 社会工作强调以优势为基础的实践方法可以应用于城市环境，并用于确定居民已经拥有的可以利用的优势和资源. 社会工作者也将能够利用他们的社区评估技能来有效地发现社区可能想要和需要什么. For example, catering to the ethnic food tastes of particular communities.
整个社会都存在着生产和获得健康和可持续食物来源之间的联系, and social workers can become part of the solution. 我很高兴能在大学领导培训下一代社工的工作，以承担这项任务.
