University of Denver Winter 2024

seeking collaborators in other disciplines, mainly engineering and geography. Their projects were at the nexus of extreme weather, climate change and people. “In that work, I really focused on… social vulnerability, social justice, community engagement,” she says. “I’m seeking the voice and input of everyday people.” Since coming to DU in 2020, Reyes Mason has been focusing more on public speaking and training and helping social workers and social work students connect the dots between climate change and their profession. “Within social work itself we’ve had this shift where, now, there are social workers in so many different areas of practice who are saying, ‘This is showing up. I don’t know anything about this. What do I need to know?’” Since 2015, environmental

justice has been a required competency for all U.S. social workers. Now every graduate in the field has some knowledge of environmental justice issues and how that might interface with their work. “Our code says that we should be pursuing social justice through what we do as social workers,” says Reyes Mason. “So, we need to be thinking about [the pursuit of] environmental justice as part of what’s needed if we are going to create condi tions for all people to be healthy and thrive.” Reyes Mason calls climate change a “threat multiplier” for many communities. “There’s already difficult, challenging, unfair living conditions that a lot of people or communities whom social

workers work with are experiencing and the climate crisis is like another piece of that context that’s making things worse,” she says. For example, social workers in some Denver Public Schools routinely deal with heat days and school closures. These schools tend to be in older buildings and have a higher concentration of lower income families. School closures put stress on parents who may not be able to leave their jobs, or fear that if they do, they could lose their jobs if they need to be home with their kids.

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