Guidance on Climate Justice Education and Practice in AIEB Endorsed Programmes
In 2022, CWI and AIEB introduced a series of Continuous Practice Development (CPD) workshops to create opportunities for community workers to build on their skills and knowledge in areas of relevance to community work practice.
The second workshop, delivered by Jamie Gorman, focused on Climate Justice and Community work Responses to Climate Change. At the time of the workshop, Jamie was a lecturer in Community Work and Environmental Justice at the Department of Applied Social Studies, Maynooth University. Jamie has a Masters in Community Work and is a Doctor of Social Science. He previously worked with Galway City Community Network, is a former chairperson of Friends of the Earth and convened the Community Work Ireland Climate Justice Working Group.
This guidance has been developed in consultation with community work educators and community work practitioners working on the issue. This guidance demonstrates AIEB’s ongoing commitment to providing those involved in the education field with advice aimed at enhancing the overall quality of community work education and training and addressing the key issues of the day.
The overarching aim of this guidance is to support students to develop structural understanding of climate injustice that:
- situates it within the historical and present-day context of capitalist economic development, colonialism and consumerism;
- addresses how it intersects with other forms of injustice, inequality and oppression in Ireland and globally.
In addressing climate and biodiversity crises, community workers are not required to be climate science experts or develop a whole new set of competencies. The central concern of community work is to create the conditions for participation and empowerment of communities in pursuit of social justice, equality and human rights.
Download the AIEB Climate Justice Guidance PDF
