Topic(s): 
Indigenous People and Communities
National Social Work Month
Poverty
Webinar event date: 
mar 6, 2024 12:00 pm EST
Webinar link
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Webinar Presenters: 
The Honourable Wanda Thomas Bernard, PhD, C.M., O.N.S Senator - Nova Scotia (East Preston)

Senator Wanda Thomas Bernard is the first African Nova Scotian woman to be appointed to the Senate of Canada, representing the province of Nova Scotia and her hometown of East Preston. Senator Bernard champions issues impacting African Canadians and people living with disabilities. She is particularly invested in human rights, employment equity, and mental health. Through her involvement in community projects, her social work career, her time with Dalhousie School of Social Work, and now her work in the Senate, Senator Bernard has maintained a deep dedication to social justice and racial justice. Senator Bernard advocates for reparations for the historical and continued anti-Black racism impacting the lives of African Canadians.

 

Lena Dominelli, PhD, AcSS

Professor Lena Dominelli is the Programme Director for the Disaster Interventions and Humanitarian Aid programme which offers a one year MSc at the University of Stirling in Scotland.  She was previously Co-Director at the Institute of Hazards, Risk and Resilience (2010-2016) at Durham University.  She has a specific interest in projects on climate change and extreme weather events including drought, floods, cold snaps; and wild fires; earthquakes, volcanic eruptions; disaster interventions; vulnerabilities and resilience; community engagement; coproduction and participatory action research, all viewed from an anti-oppressive perspective.  Her research projects include funding from the ESRC, EPSRC, NERC, the Department of International Development, Wellcome Trust and UNICEF. Lena is a prolific writer and has published widely in social work, social policy, and sociology. Her latest of many books, Social Work During Times of Disaster, was published in 2023. She currently chairs the IASSW Committee on Disaster Interventions, Climate Change and Sustainability, and also heads the special interest group on the topic for the British Association of Social Workers. Lena has represented the social work profession at the United Nations discussions on climate change, since Cancun, Mexico in 2010.  She has received various honours for her work.

Description

Disasters are a social work issue, and practitioners, researchers, students, and academics should not think otherwise. We live in an increasingly fragile world, and much of this fragility can be laid at the door of an indifferent humanity whose relationship with Mother Earth has been one of exploitation which has often left poor and marginalised people in both the Global South and the Global North behind.

Join The Honourable Senator Wanda Thomas Bernard and Dr. Lena Dominelli for a spirited conversation that will challenge social workers and social work educators to rise above indifference and restore healthy relationships between peoples, plants, animals, and our beautiful planet.

Senator Bernard and Dr. Dominelli will draw upon green social work perspectives and argue for transdisciplinary approaches to be used to address disaster challenges which are part of the climate crisis.

For those who wish to intervene by adopting a duty of care for our physical environment and all it contains, examples will be shared on how to do this. Canada’s First Nations and Inuit peoples, for example, have much to offer in this regard if we listen to their teachings and enact them. We can follow the teachings of indigenous peoples and their guidance to act as custodians of the Earth and leave it as sustainable in perpetuity.