Feature
In March 2024, the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work hosted Regardt “Reggie” Ferreira, professor of social work and director of Tulane University’s Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy, for the Sydney and Julia Teller Endowed Lecture on World Social Work Day.
“Debbie Moon and I decided that Global Social Work week should focus on global issues of environmental sustainability and the critical role of social workers in that space,” says Pitt Social Work Research Associate Professor Mary Rauktis. “It is often not a space that social workers think to be involved in, yet we have the important skills to bring people together on these often-divisive issues. Reggie’s work in the New Orleans epicenter of environmental disaster was not only in disaster response but in prevention.”
Ferreira, a third-generation social worker, was introduced by Rauktis, who discussed the intersection of climate change and social work. “Social work is involved in many global spaces. Our responses usually come when there are disasters,” she said, “and we are helping communities recover when they are impacted by climate change or disaster. When people are impacted by war, social work is in those spaces. However, social work needs to be there, at the table, before disasters happen.”
Ferreira’s lecture, “How to Advocate for Climate Justice,” opened with a quote from a 2023 United Nations Development Programme report defining climate justice as “putting equity and human rights at the core of decision-making and action on climate change.” He also noted that low-income communities and communities of color are disproportionally affected by climate change.
Ferreira shared best practices for engaging communities with a local-to-global lens that strives to eliminate barriers and ensures that frontline communities impacted by climate change can access needed resources. He spoke about how to make a difference from a social work perspective in the fight for climate justice to create a more equitable future for all.
“There is no other profession that is better situated than social work to bring about change,” he said. “We understand communities. We are able to work with communities, households, and individuals. It’s really a systems approach.”
The question-and-answer period allowed attendees, both in person and online, to ask Ferreira about the intersection of social work and disaster, how to prevent excess stress on social workers in this field, and about his own work during disaster efforts.
He ended his remarks with a call to action for the audience to be part of the change by volunteering; being an advocate for those impacted; focusing on adaptation; reducing, reusing, and recycling; advocating for local, national, and international polices; and, finally, making self-care a priority.
Ferreira also is the program director of the Consortium for Equitable Disaster Resilience. His main research interest is at the intersection of disaster, climate change, resilience, and behavioral health, and he has conducted work in Europe, Africa, North America, the Caribbean, and South Asia.