Center for Diversity Webinar: 21st Century Displacement & Uprooting May 21, 2026

A combination of geopolitical and climate change factors are forcing displacement of millions of people around the world. There is a professional imperative for social workers to become familiar with the adverse impacts that forced uprooting has on vulnerable and marginalized communities locally and globally, and to advocate for social, economic, and environmental justice for these communities. Environmental justice is now one of the social justice priorities of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW). The profession is only recently infusing content on environmental justice into the curricula. The panelists of this webinar will make the case for why social work practitioners should broaden our focus on social justice to include the various environmental injustices arising from the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events, global warming and climate change. The panelists will utilize key constructs from environmental social work, including displacement and uprooting induced by climate change.