Learn more about Conflict First Aid™ here.
What is Conflict First Aid™? Watch the quick explainer:
Conflict First Aid™ is proven to help, can be learned easily, and stops conflict driven patterns of hostility, resistance, escalation, fear, discomfort, or avoidance.
Joan Feringa, Founder
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"when stakes are high and failure isn’t an option”
Andrea J. Lee (Author, We Need to Talk, Your Guide to Challenging Business Conversations)
Meet Joan, Founder
Joan Feringa (formerly McLeod) has been a leader, teacher and conflict management scholar-practitioner for over 25 years.
Her long-standing connection to water (she was on the water with her Dad, with Sea Cadets and the Canadian Coast Guard and lives near it today) meant being a navigator infused everything.
WHERE DID CONFLICT FIRST AID™ START?
After certification and extensive practice in negotiation, facilitation, risk management, and systems design and assessment, Joan's Master's and her thesis ("A Hammer or the Whole Toolbox? Conflict Management in Organizations", 2002) proved conflict management supports were generally inaccessible.
She wasn't alone in that observation: most couldn't find options they were sure would work to address concerns, complaints, or issues with collaboration and collegiality.
Her education and experience focused her on a continued passion to answer that key question in conflict management: "where" do we go when "here" is conflicted? People wanted information, resources or support from the start...and that was the a-ha that was around the corner.
The Gap - Seeing CONFLICT FIRST AID™ at All
Joan had identified a clear, critical gap. After a powerful experience showed her that even Mental Health Experts did not know the skills of "Mental Health" or Psychological First Aid, she used her education, research, and experience to start the work that proved volunteers from all walks of life, ages, and competency level in any other kind of endeavor a) needed to learn what Conflict First Aid™
was and b) didn't otherwise know how to do it, no matter their other conflict relevant or adjacent competency or expertise.
Further, she learned that most were hungry to learn and help with evidence-based de-escalation and prevention competencies (equivalent to medical and mental health first aid).
The first 20 official Introduction to Conflict First Aid™ Skills and Competency certificates (a 12 hour workshop) were awarded in January, 2020.
Foundations of Conflict First Aid™ can be learned in just 4.5 hours.
Wish you could ask the founder a question?
She'll answer!
Email her, here: [email protected]
A SAFE sequence.
5 simple steps that are EASY to do.
Conflict First Aid™ Foundations can be learned in just a few hours so you're practice-ready.
Practice Cohorts are underway. They're currently free.
NOTE: As promised, Conflict First Aid™ Plank Owners, Community Practice Portal and Conflict School "Zones" for allies and opportunities are returning soon.
Ready to be Certified in Conflict First Aid™? Join the Wait List!
Conflict prevention and resolution options can help...reach out, here.
No matter the conflict, we'll try to help.
Spread the word yourself!
