COMMUNITY
WE FOSTER A SENSE OF COMMUNITY
Community building is part of our brief as a Community Interest Company, and one of our USPs. We will be encouraging all of our participants to play an active role in our online community. The communities we build together play a vital role in our growth and development, as well as being an important source of support and encouragement.
GESHE TASHI TSERING
Geshe Tashi will be a constant presence during your two years as you watch and listen to his teachings. His teachings will be the glue that binds us together as a community.
From time to time you will see videos from him offering support, advice and encouragement. Towards the end of each term, your tutors will collect questions from you, and Geshe-la will answer each one in a video that you and your group will share. These exchanges will be unique to you and your group and not shared with others. They will be an opportunity to make a direct and personal connection with him. Over and over again we receive many emails or blog comments from those who have completed the online FBT, saying how much they value the close relationship they now feel they have with Geshe Tashi as their teacher or spiritual friend.
TUTOR AND STUDY GROUPS
We keep groups small, never more than 15 participants, so that over the two years there’s a chance to get to know each other well, and share experiences, hardships and joys. Small groups encourage an atmosphere in which each participant can share their experience and feel heard. Together, students co-create a group culture and atmosphere in which all participants can feel a sense of safety and belonging.
Our tutors will be on hand to support you during your FBT journey. They will facilitate the on-line discussion groups, helping and encouraging everyone to play an active part in their online course. Once a month there will be a tutor-facilitated live video discussion group.
OUR GRADUATE COMMUNITY
We will be encouraging all our graduates to remain an active part of our community. We plan to have graduate events, and hope we can all come together from time to time to hear Geshe Tashi teach his classes and courses in person.
One special characteristic of Community Interest Companies is their tendency to source their employees from the people served by the organisation. In our case, this is the students who come through the course. In order to grow, we will need an increasing number of tutors, and we will be looking to fill these positions with graduates from our courses.
OUR WIDER COMMUNITY
We are based in Cornwall in the U.K., and already have links to local business and organisations.
We will shortly be applying for National Lottery Funding to launch a local FBT Study group at no cost to participants.
We plan to reach out to our wider online community by establishing a Bursary Fund that will be available to anyone who finds the cost of this course a barrier to joining us. If you are interested in helping to build our community in this way, please let us know.
Whoever you are, wherever you are, we would love to hear from you, please do get in touch.