Eco-Social Work in Australia

OVERVIEW OF THE ECO-SOCIAL WORK IN AUSTRALIA PODCAST SERIES Welcome to this new podcast series ‘Eco-Social Work in Australia.’ The series is building to contain interviews with a diverse range of Australian social work practitioners: academics and researchers, social work trainers, professionals in mainstream practice and students in training. Each guest will give their personal perspectives on some of the still emerging ideas, practices, and principles of an exciting, transformative turn within contemporary, mainstream Australian social work practice. This body of work has been variously termed Green, environmental or eco-social work. The initial collection of seven podcast episodes cover a diverse range of topics relevant to eco-social work practice and principles, including Australian training institution perspectives on eco-social work practice, eco-social work approaches within the health sector, and a student in training experience of an eco-social work-oriented placement. A few of these episodes hold discussion with some of the leading thinkers and pioneers of the eco-social work turn in Australia such as: Dr Heather Boetto, Dr Susan Bailey and Dr Peter Jones. Each podcast interview is loosely structured around four key questions put to guests: • For you, what is eco-social work practice in 2021? • How can eco-social work help tackle climate change and other ecological sustainability concerns in practical terms? • Why should the mainstream social work profession here be involved with such concerns? • What might the short to mid-term future (2-10 years) hold for eco- social work interventions, as a body of practice within the Australian social work mainstream? A key objective of this podcasting project is to help grow a conversation on eco-social work practice amongst listeners. The researcher and producer of the series, Andrew Nicholson, a retired social worker and environmental educator, wants the series to expand over time, to provide an audio record of evolutionary trends in eco-social work practice adoption in Australia. He and his podcast guests hope that this process can make a small contribution to increasing the speed of uptake of eco-social work approaches amongst social work colleagues, in their workplaces, professional groups, and in networking with other allied professionals. Andrew seeks feedback from listeners on any point of interest they may develop in response to the series. He welcomes suggestions for series improvements, ideas for wider broadcast, and possible future guests to be approached for interview. The initial episodes in the series were auspiced by HOPE Australia, a community, environmental capacity building organisation, based in Toowoomba, S.E. Queensland.