This episode presents a roundtable discussion from Social Justice Week 2022, called When Helpers Harm: Social Justice and Social Work, featuring social work practitioners, graduate students and educators.

As cities like Toronto face mounting crises of homelessness, food insecurity & hunger, drug overdoses, lack of mental health resources, and more, the issues social workers are tackling have grown larger and more acute. How do social work students and others involved in shaping the quality of urban life prepare themselves to enter the field to make a positive difference?

Panel members explored how terms like social justice and anti-oppression are actually translated into action on the ground, and rasied critical questions, such as: Why are concepts such as harm reduction and abolition absent from the curriculum? How can we create curriculum that ensure social workers are centering social justice and not replicating harms?

Panel Members:
Karen Arthurton
Alannah Fricker
Cristal Hines
Sam Howden

Moderator:
Jen Poole

Host: Kiké Roach
Editor: Eunice Addo