ABSTRACT
Trends in social work employment in the United States have continued to focus the profession in the areas of health and social assistance (Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), 2011), securing professional social workers’ roles in micro-level, direct practice arenas. Despite an increased public interest in sustainability and environmental issues, the thrust of social work education and practice continues to be directed toward individuallevel processes and agency-based practice settings. A viable congruence between social work values and environmental and ecological justice has been noted (see Chapter 1). However, the educational and practice experiences of most social workers do not reect values outside of an individualistic or humanistic focus. Two recent US studies suggest social work students and practitioners express interest in and commitment to environmental issues (Shaw, 2011; Shaw, Miller, and Hayward, 2008) and leaders in the eld point to the convergence of social work and environmental concerns (Besthorn and Canda, 2002; Besthorn and Saleebey, 2003; Coates, 2003; Coates, Gray, and Hetherington, 2006; Gray and Coates, 2011; Rogge, 1993). Efforts to infuse the social work curriculum with an understanding of environmental and ecological justice are a key step in expanding the social work profession’s role in the environmental arena but typical practice settings in the USA may not offer social workers opportunities to practise in an ecologically conscious way. This chapter explores employment prospects for social workers in the USA, social workers’ attitudes and beliefs toward the environment, and potential areas for infusing environmental issues and concerns into social work education and the most social worker dense practice arenas.
