On Monday, we hosted our first CPCA Webinar for 2023 - a three hour session on Conflict Management. Thirty police chaplains and two RCMP Victim Services counsellors registered for this event. Two days later, I'm continuing to receive glowing reports from police chaplains regarding the depth of the content presented by RCMP "K" Division Informal Conflict Management Practitioner Melanie Gerhardt.
There were many nuggets shared during the session, and in particular I found the category of how to assess/recognize "Conflict Styles" and how to navigate through them particularly interesting and helpful. There was a self assessment piece and examples for when each conflict style could be beneficial or detrimental depending upon the circumstances of the situational conflict.
Thank you, Melanie for sharing years of incite and knowledge pertaining to conflict and stress management. You have provided police chaplains with valuable tools as we serve those who serve with excellence. Thank you to our CPCA 1st VP George Madden for the topic and presenter selection; well done once again, George.
Finally, thank you to all the police chaplains who invested your time and funds towards this training. For CPCA Members the cost was a mere $25.00 for which you have received knowledge, a CPCA Certificate, and three hours credited to your training records. The CPCA will continue to host these webinars for as long as police chaplains continue to participate having the desire to greater equip our self to be the best we can be to serve the men and women who put their lives on the line daily for the safety the communities they serve.
Our next webinar will be in May and the topic of "Moral Injury" will be presented by truly an expert in this field, who has been directly involved in research and development of this subject matter. I hope the number of registered chaplains will be even greater come May. Details for this webinar are TBD. These webinars are open to registration from non-CPCA police chaplains for $50.00. Stay tuned for details and God bless.
Bruce Ewanyshyn
CPCA President
ICPC Director Region 1