Time Banking, Barter and Community Marketplace
Time Banking Overview
What is a Time Bank?
The concept is simple; when you spend an hour doing something for an individual or group, you earn a Time Dollar. Then you can use that Time Dollar to buy an hour of another member’s time or service or good. Time Dollars value everyone’s contributions equally. One hour equals one Time Dollar.
Time Banking is a tool by which a group of people can create an alternative economic model where they exchange their time, skills and goods, rather than acquire goods and services through the use of money or any other government – backed value. This exchange concept is based upon the premise that everyone has something to contribute, and in this way, it creates a system that connects unmet needs with untapped resources with unmet people. The origins of time-based currency can be traced back to the American anarchist Josiah Warren, and his Cincinnati Time Store, and to the British industrialist/philanthropist Robert Owen who founded a community called New Harmony in Indiana (Both of these were founded around 1924, based on the principles of labor exchange.) The first successful contemporary time bank was started at Ithaca, New York, during the recession of the 90’s, when a small town effectively ran out of cash. To get work done, people started exchanging time, which eventually led to a creation of a local time-based currency that even local banks started to accept. Time banking and service-exchange have now developed into a full-fledged movement centered around local communities.
Time bank Hub’s work by recording, storing and finding new ways of rewarding the time people spend helping each other in their local communities. The time credits earned in the schemes can have their value underpinned by local authorities or concerned businesses making time and goods available in return for them – reinforcing reciprocity and trust. But even without that, time banks are one way of putting neighbours in touch with each other, using people’s skills and imagination, particularly older people’s, which is ignored by the market economy, and building a network of neighbourhood support.
In a world where everything seems to be about money — where advertisers use their enormous talents to convince us that all we need is newly whitened teeth or hair that flows in a certain way or insurance protection that supplies guardian angels — Time Bank members find that there just may be another way to know you are valued, trusted and even loved.
EDGAR S. CAHN,
Creator of Time Dollars and Time Banking
Core Values of Time Banking
Time Banking turns strangers into friends. Hey, can you do me a favour?
Core Values of Time Banking
Have you ever wished you had someone around to give you a ride somewhere, help you run some errands, pick you up after you’ve dropped your car off for repairs, or just give you a hand when you need it. Someone you really trust.
Many of us have friends, neighbors and family members who help us out, but they can’t always be there in a pinch. In a Time Banking community, someone is always there when you need them.
It is like having an extended family to help out—with rides to the doctor, trips to the supermarket, help with the garden, chores around the house or elder day care or child day care.
With Time Banking, sharing gifts means building trust!
Time Banking honors the unique gifts, talents and resources that each of us has to share, regardless of age, employment or ethnic background — such as tutoring, garden work, simple repairs, running errands, and storytelling. It’s labor with love.
Time Banks exist to promote exchanges that honor five core values.
Contributors
We are all contributors
Every human being has something to contribute
Redefining Work
Some work is beyond price
Work has to be redefined to value whatever it takes to raise healthy children, build strong families, revitalise neighborhoods, make democracy work, advance social justice, make the planet sustainable. That kind of work needs to be honored, recorded and rewarded.
Reciprocity
Helping works better as a two-way street
The question: “How can I help you?” needs to change so we ask: “How can we help each other build the community we both will live in?”
Social Networks
We need each other
Networks are stronger than individuals. People helping each other reweave communities of support, strength & trust. Community is built upon sinking roots, building trust, creating networks. Special relationships are built on commitment.
Respect
Every human being matters
Respect underlies freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and everything we value. Respect supplies the heart and soul of democracy. When respect is denied to anyone, we all are injured. We must respect where people are in the moment, not where we hope they will be at some future point.
Example of the rules of a Time Banking organisation:
Mission- The mission of a Community Exchange is to enhance the lives of people living and working in a community by creating social networks and an incentive system for neighbors to take care of each other.
The five core values are the foundation on which all Time Banking programs are built. They are:
Contributors – Everyone has the capacity to be a contributor to the well-being of others in their community.
Redefining work – Work has to be redefined to value whatever it takes to raise healthy children, build strong families, revitalise neighborhoods, make democracy work, advance social justice, and make the planet sustainable. That kind of work needs to be honored, recorded and rewarded.
Reciprocity – We need each other. Giving and receiving are the basic building blocks of positive social relationships and healthy communities.
Rebuilding community – Belonging to a mutually supportive and secure social network brings more meaning to our lives and new opportunities to rebuild our trust in one another.
Respect – Respect underlies freedom of speech, freedom of religion and everything we value. Respect supplies the heart and soul of democracy. When respect is denied to anyone, we all are injured. We must respect where people are in the moment, not where we hope they will be at some future point.
Core Values of Time Banking (as an example)
Your Role as
As a member of the Community Exchange, you:
- Should both give and receive services! If you don’t receive you may be preventing someone else from giving.
- Must attend the orientation/training session prior to giving or receiving services.
- Earn Time Dollars for each hour of service you provide.
- Record the Time Dollars you earn and spend to the Community Exchange.
- May donate Time Dollars to another Community Exchange member or to the Time Dollar Credit Bank.
- May incur an indebtedness of no more than three (3) hours to the time bank
Community Exchange
Definitions
Credit Bank: A repository, managed by Community Exchange staff, where donated time dollars are stored.
Member: An individual, organisation or group who is eligible to provide (offer) and receive (request) services and/or goods. Please note members must attend an orientation/training session prior to providing or receiving services.
Transaction: An exchange of services or goods between two or more Time Banking members.
Time Dollars: “Currency” earned and used for services and goods provided and received. One hour of service equals one time dollar.
Service Provider: A Community Exchange member who gives services to another Community Exchange member.
Service Recipient: A Community Exchange member who receives services from another Community Exchange member.
Goods Provider: A Community Exchange member who gives product to another Community Exchange member.
Service Recipient: A Community Exchange member who receives product from another Community Exchange member.
Youth Member: Any Community Exchange member under the age of 18.
Time Dollar Credit Bank: The pool of donated time dollars that are stored for reserve and emergency use. This pool of donated time dollars is to be used by those members who are unable to earn enough time dollars due to illness or disability or to offset hours used to administer programs. Use of the time dollars in the credit bank will be based on need as determined by the program manager.
Donor: A Community Exchange member who gives a portion of the time dollars earned to the credit bank or another Community Exchange member.
Donee: A Community Exchange member who has a service need, but who has not banked enough time dollars to receive the service.
Request a FREE trial of our Time Banking and Marketplace Platform
What can we help you with?
Training & Support is included for all Evolution Smart Software users