News

Elevating mountain environmental justice

19.04.2016

The University of Denver - Western Colorado Master Social Work Programme, Graduate School of Social Work (GSSW), demonstrates its commitment to the Mountain Partnership’s mission - to improve the lives of mountain peoples and protect mountain environments around the world - in a number of ways. Every spring the programme offers a “Contemporary Social Work Issues” course, focused on environmental justice in Colorado’s rural mountain communities. Discussion topics include the impacts of climate change on local economies, the need to provide safe and affordable housing in rural resort communities, and food and water rights, especially for the communities’ vulnerable populations.

As part of the class, Western Colorado students practise social work e-advocacy skills in virtual learning environments, exploring and using technology and new media to promote environmental justice. Specifically, the students capture and post digital stories of the injustices they believe are occurring in their home communities. These and other course assignments reflect new educational policy and accreditation standards, set by the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) Commission on Educational Policy in 2015, which integrate environmental justice for the first time. CSWE is the national accrediting body for social work higher education programmes.

In another demonstration of the Western Colorado programme’s commitment to promoting sustainability, administrative assistant and operations manager Jan Dean attended an Actively Green LEED Certification training session provided by the Walking Mountains Training Center in Avon, Colorado. In the United States and a number of other countries around the world, LEED certification is the recognized standard for measuring building sustainability, reducing the negative environmental impacts of buildings and improving occupant health and wellbeing.

Along with Western Colorado programme director Rachel Forbes and assistant director Sara Jacobs, Dean is now consulting with Garfield County to see if a change to LED lighting can be made at the building the two entities share in Glenwood Springs. Western Colorado already has implemented recycling of glass, plastics and cardboard, and the programme provides drinking water so that students forgo the use of bottled water.

“These are small steps,” Dean says, “but one needs to begin somewhere!”