UCalgary podcast amplifies climate action through community voices

On Monday, Dec. 15, Federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change and Nature, the Hon. Julie Dabrusin, visited the University of Calgary where she toured labs and met some of the researchers whose work is shaping Canada’s response to environmental harm. 

Part of the minister’s agenda was to announce 23 projects funded under the 2025 Environment and Climate Change Canada Environmental Damages Fund competition.

One of Dabrusin’s hosts at the UCalgary event was Dr. Julie Drolet, PhD, a professor in the Faculty of Social Work based at UCalgary’s Edmonton campus and a nationally recognized leader in green social work and climate justice.

For Drolet, a previous recipient of grant funding from the Environment Damages Fund, the visit provided a good opportunity to update the minister on her innovative project and to underline the importance of social work research in building resilience, advancing environmental justice, and mobilizing communities toward meaningful action.

“It was a great opportunity to meet the minister in person and share some of our findings,” Drolet says. “But it was also a chance to talk about the ongoing work we’re doing and how social work can contribute to climate solutions in ways that are grounded in community, hope, and action.”

Turning research into accessible climate conversations

One of the projects Drolet updated the minister on is an innovative, student-led initiative that received a $50,000 Climate Action Grant from the $1.62-million received by UCalgary's Office of Sustainability for its Mobilizing Alberta initiative, which is funded through the Environmental Damages fund.  

Rather than focusing on traditional academic outputs, Drolet and her team partnered with UCalgary’s campus community radio station, CJSW 91 FM, to create a podcast series titled Climate Action and Advocacy on the Airwaves. 

The project partnership trained and mentored social work students to research, script, and produce professional-quality podcast episodes focused on climate action initiatives across southern Alberta. The result is a series of accessible, compelling stories that spotlight community-led responses to climate change, from grassroots sustainability projects to local efforts in adaptation and resilience.

“In Alberta, we don’t always have a lot of constructive conversation about climate change,” Drolet says. “What we know from community development work is that there are incredible initiatives happening, but they often don’t get visibility. We wanted to change that.”

Rather than focusing on climate impacts alone, the podcast highlights what communities are actively doing to address environmental challenges. The emphasis, Drolet says, was on building hope and resilience, and showing what’s possible when people come together.

Experiential learning with real-world impact

Students involved in the project worked as a team, identifying topics, conducting community-based research, developing scripts, and recording episodes at CJSW’s state-of-the-art facilities. With expert guidance from CJSW staff and faculty, they learned how to translate research into engaging audio storytelling, a skill increasingly valuable in today’s digital landscape.

“All of the episodes have now aired,” Drolet says. “They’re available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and the CJSW website — and they’re being used as teaching tools in courses, as well.”

For students, the experience offered far more than a line on a resumé. It provided hands-on training in knowledge mobilization, community engagement, and digital communication, competencies that are increasingly essential in social-work practice.

“What we heard from students was how much they valued learning about green social work in a practical way,” Drolet says. “They were excited to explore how technologies like podcasts can be used to reach broader audiences and inform practice.”

Climate justice is social justice

Drolet’s work is grounded in a central conviction that climate change is not just an environmental issue, but a social one.

“There’s a growing recognition in Canada that social justice is climate justice,” she says. “Environmental sustainability, disaster risk reduction, and environmental justice are very much part of what social workers are engaged in, whether they’re working with individuals, families, or communities.”

That perspective is especially important, Drolet notes, in interdisciplinary settings where climate conversations are often dominated by technical or scientific approaches.

“Social work brings an understanding of the social dimensions of climate change, how it affects people differently, how it intersects with inequality, and how communities can be supported to respond and adapt,” she says.

Building toward a larger, transdisciplinary vision

The success of Climate Action and Advocacy on the Airwaves has already sparked momentum for larger initiatives. Drolet and her collaborators have since secured Stage 1 Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) funding for a new national partnership grant proposal — Advancing Transdisciplinary Experiential Learning — with Stage 2 funding now under review.

If successful, the seven-year, $2.5-million project would bring together students and researchers from multiple disciplines, along with more than 70 partners across more than 20 countries, to explore climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction through experiential learning and digital storytelling.

“The podcast project showed us what’s possible,” Drolet says. “The lessons we learned — about partnership, storytelling, and student engagement — will directly inform how we move forward.”

A timely national conversation

As Dabrusin prepared to announce 23 projects funded through the 2025 Environmental Damages Fund competition, Drolet saw the visit as an important signal that social dimensions of climate change belong in national policy conversations.

“I hope this visit helps highlight that there are academics in Alberta, including social workers, who are deeply engaged in this work,” Drolet says. “And that we can be part of shaping future sustainability initiatives, training the next generation of practitioners, and strengthening the links between research, policy, and community action.”