LBC in the wider community

The LBC is increasingly active in the wider community. This includes outreach ventures bringing the Dharma to new groups of people, as well as an increasing range of less explicitly Buddhist activities.

Carers Retreat
These are 2 day retreats at Vajrasana specifically for people who are primary carers for family members or friends. They provide a valuable opportunity for people to have a break from their caring responsibilities in the company of other carers. The retreats combine instruction in meditation with tuition in massage, Alexander Technique and various therapies that help manage stress and tension. The LBC has recently been given funding from Tower Hamlets council to run a series of these retreats.

Globe Community Project
This project started out of a desire to use the arts and community work skills of people associated with the London Buddhist Centre to connect with the Centre’s neighbours in the locality, one of Europe’s most deprived boroughs. GCP is a registered charity and aims to serve the community across the spectrum of religions and cultures.

Our programmes have included a health and arts project for local women with Bengali translation; a creative performance project for young Bangladeshi women and older white women, and Aikido for girls and boys. We run a weekly benefits advice service for local people and currently ‘The Open Circle’, a year-long women’s interfaith storytelling group.

We are always on the look out for new ideas for projects as well as volunteers to help us with fundraising, running our activities and joining us on our friendly committee.

For more information call Srivati on 020 8926 1908 or email: srivati@ntlworld.com.

Bodhi Tree- Workshops for schools
Bodhi Tree provides interactive and enjoyable workshops in Buddhism for primary and secondary schools. It is a project associated with the London Buddhist Centre and run by two qualified teachers who are members of the Western Buddhist order. In addition to meeting curriculum needs, the workshops encourage reflection on ethical issues in our day to day lives. Training for teachers and student teachers is available along with meditations and awareness sessions for adults and children.
For more information call 020 8926 1908. www.bodhitree.org.uk

London Citizens / TELCO
The LBC is an active member of London Citizens, and its East London wing called TELCO. London Citizens is a broad based communities organisation that brings together existing groups of people to work together and campaign on issues of common concern. But TELCO is much more than the sum of its campaigning work – effective though that is. It is also about training people in leadership skills and in the ideas of democracy and active citizenship. But perhaps even more importantly it is about developing relationships between different groups of people and widening their sense of community. The whole concept of ‘relationship’ is fundamental to the philosophy behind the activities of TELCO. The member institutions include different faith communities in the East End as well as schools, colleges and unions. The LBC has been a member since 1995.
To find out more contact Jnanavaca or Maitreyaraja at the LBC ;
Tel - 0845 458 4716 email - info@lbc.org.uk
or visit www.telcocitizens.org.uk

Encouraging Diversity
The Buddha’s teaching is universal in its relevance but any presentation of it is bound to appeal to some people more than others. For some years the LBC has been encouraging diversity in the Sangha. We run activities and retreats specifically for people of colour. People of colour includes anybody with one or more parent from African, Asian, Caribbean descent, as well as those from East Asia and Latin America.

Recently we have started classes for Spanish speaking people. A drop-in meditation class conducted in Spanish has been running every Friday evening in the offices of IRMO, an advice centre for the Latin American community in London.
For more details contact Laura Villegas on 0207 729 8833.