Healthy Buddhist Communities
Clergy misconduct has been a serious and recurring obstacle to the dissemination of Buddhist contemplative practices in the west. Recognizing the importance of creating safe environments for our Contemplative Practice Fellowships and contemplative practitioners in general, Hemera seeks to promote organizational and cultural changes that protect communities from misconduct.
To help achieve this goal, Hemera launched its Healthy Buddhist Communities grant program in 2019 to partner with retreat centers and sanghas to strengthen ethical policies and practices, improve supervision and support for teachers, or develop strategies to reduce the potential for abuse in Buddhist communities. To that end, Hemera has awarded over US$150,000 in grants to fund initiatives developed by communities to strengthen their own ethical policies and practices.
Grantees are working to advance the following aims, which we believe are critical for preventing abuse in Buddhist communities.
Strengthening the education and training of those in teaching and leadership roles around professional ethics, ethical use of power, and pastoral roles and responsibilities.
Strengthening community education around religious abuse, healthy boundaries, and the limits of the teacher-student relationship.
Creating and implementing effective “model” policies and procedures supporting organizational transparency, whistleblower and abuse reporting, and grievance resolution and remediation.
Creating effective education and training for administrative leaders, board members, and others charged with maintaining accountable leadership and governance.
Strengthening teacher supervision and support, including peer supervision / peer accountability processes, to address all important areas of personal and professional conduct.
Promoting discussions between teachers and leaders from different communities about right conduct for clergy aimed at cultivating a greater awareness of and reflection upon norms within lineages and in the wider context of Buddhism in North America.
Buddhist communities of practice and retreat centers are invited to develop proposals to a maximum of US$10,000 to advance their efforts to prevent misconduct.
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