March 26th happened to be the 35th Annual Social Work Day at the United Nations. This day is for Social Workers from all around the world to come together in New York City to learn about the United Nations, as well as ideas or issues that relate to International social work. This year’s theme was “SDGs, Climate Change and Social Work Practice.” Our own Cairn social work students did not get to attend the event this year, however, some of us did get to go to the Global Student Conference for Social Work that took place the day prior on Sunday, March 25th.  

“I really loved going to the UN Social Work Day and being in a room full of people who had a heart for serving and helping those in need. With the topic being climate change, I was confused on how that related to social work but the truth is it actually does. During the conference, the discussion was how natural disaster affect and displaced people and how we as social workers should respond. However, nobody within the conference actually defined what climate change actually was. When I think of climate change I think of what the scientists and the research they do, not hurricane, wildfires, and earthquakes. Despite that little confusion, I actually learned a lot about how to respond to a natural disaster and how to help someone who has been traumatized by the event. I am looking forward to the next topic of discussion at the UN next year.” —Margery Ball

Upon arriving to the Conference, we took our seats and listened as we were given an explanation on what the rest of the day would look like. After an introduction, we broke up into smaller groups and discussed more specific topics regarding the theme. After attending two small different smaller forums, we came back to the large conference room to share and listen to what everyone had learned from the forums. We then got to hear from a panel of professional social workers, including the President of the Council on Social Work Education and the President of the International Association of Schools of Social Work.

“I showed up to the conference and immediately felt cynical upon realizing that the topic was climate change. However, as soon as the workshops began, I started to feel my cynicism melt away as I heard many individuals share the hardships they faced in a variety of natural disasters and the importance of social workers’ response during such times. As I watched the Climate Change documentary, my eyes were glued to the screen and the minute it was switched off, a sensation of protest welled up inside me–I wanted to sit there and watch the whole documentary! I learned that climate change should not only be the focus of scientists, but rather every individual, and especially social workers, should be cognizant of the impending natural disasters and how it will affect millions of individuals. We have to anticipate it so we can prevent as much as we can and be primed to care for victims right away. Overall, it was an eye-opening and worthwhile experience.” —Abby Rider

This event was an incredible experience and provided many of us with a much broader sense of social work, as well as the importance of our roles as social workers in society as a whole.  A large percentage of people on this earth do not actually know what a social worker is or what they do for that matter. This event reminded me of how much social workers are valued in society and the role that we play in this world has a much greater significance then we may think.Unfortunately social workers are still seen a broke, employed people, who take kids away from their families. For this career being around for so long, you would think social workers would have a better reputation by now. I will always look back to this event as a reminder that what I am doing in my community is affecting the greater world at large.

I thought the day’s focus on natural disaster was really eye opening and I hope it mobilizes people to do more to respond to the needs of people being displaced by them. However, as much information that we get I didn’t really feel like we got very specific information on what climate change actually is. I also thought they were pretty vague when it came to giving us solutions as to what we’re supposed to do about the effects of climate change it what to do with these refugees or even that can be done about making vulnerable houses or towns sturdier against disaster. The conference was really good at rallying people but I do wish I had gotten more doable tactics for facing the problem. —Kassandra Dauphin