Social Work, Climate Change, and Environmental Justice

Friday, June 5, 2026, 9:00 AM–12:00 PM ET

Online via Zoom

Continuing Education Offered

• 3 hours general live interactive online

Description

This course offers a unique opportunity for social work professionals to learn more about environmental and climate justice and how these concepts and social movements intersect with social work values and practice. Through short films, small-group conversations, and case studies, this course will explore the history of climate and environmental justice in the United States, its relationship to systems of oppression, and how environmental and climate injustices have impacted Michigan and other communities. Case examples included in the course will help social work professionals in micro, mezzo, and macro roles understand how climate and environmental justice relate to issues such as ecoanxiety, chronic health conditions, and the persistent degradation of locations of meaning.

Objectives

1. Define environmental and climate justice.
2. Describe the history of these related movements within the United States context.
3. Describe the ways that systems of oppression create and reproduce environmental degradation and injustices.
4. List examples of degradation and injustices.
5. Describe ways that environmental and climate justice connect to social work through case examples that focus on the individual and community.

Agenda

• 9:00am–9:30am Definitions
• 9:30am–10:00am History of Environmental and Climate Justice
• 10:00am–10:30am Mechanisms of Oppression
• 10:30am–11:00am Examples of Injustice
• 11:00am–12:00pm Case examples

Instructor

Greer Hamilton, PhD, MSW

CE Approval Statement

The University of Michigan School of Social Work, provider #1212, is approved to offer social work continuing education by the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB) Approved Continuing Education (ACE) program. Organizations, not individual courses, are approved as ACE providers. State and provincial regulatory boards have the final authority to determine whether an individual course may be accepted for continuing education credit. The University of Michigan School of Social Work maintains responsibility for this course. ACE provider approval period: 5/15/2023-5/15/2026.

Social workers participating in this course will receive 3 general continuing education contact hours.

Please see the CE Policies page for more information about continuing education.