A TimeBank is a network of people who exchange services with one another, wherein the "currency" of exchange is time.

Members earn “time dollars" (TD$) for time spent helping others, which they can spend on getting services for themselves.  One hour of service equals one TD$.

For example, one person may provide two hours of painting in exchange for one member’s hour of childcare and another member’s hour of yard work. TimeBanking connects people and unmet needs with untapped resources by enabling individuals to use their everyday skills to benefit a network of people.

At its most basic level, Time banking is simply about spending an hour doing something for somebody in your community. That hour goes into the Time Bank as a Time Dollar. Then you have a Time dollar to spend on having someone doing something for you. It's a simple idea, but it has powerful ripple effects in building community connections.

The getavision TimeBank provides a list of what you would like to do for other members. You look up Time Bank services online or call a community coordinator to do it for you. You earn Time Dollars after each service you perform and then you get to spend it on whatever you want from the listings.

With Time Banking, you will be working with a small group of committed individuals who are joined together for a common good. It connects you to the best in people because it creates a system that connects unmet needs with untapped resources. To see what happens each week when you are part of Time Bank is deeply fulfilling, especially if you are helping to make it run.

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TimeBanks manage and track a time-based community currency called Time Dollars. Members earn one Time Dollar for each hour they spend helping another person and spend one Time Dollar for each hour they use someone else’s help with a service, project or even a product.

I help you, you help another, and that person helps another and we each earn one Time Dollar for every hour we contribute. These exchanges are the method whereby TimeBanks USA intends to achieve its mission to rebuild family and community, create systemic change and advance social justice.

TimeBanks reward individuals for their contributions, turn recipients into participants and connect people by creating webs of support both for people in need and for those who wish to give back to their communities and society.

They expand and strengthen the web of connections within communities, promote reciprocal relationships among members, and create a means for communities to take care of their own.

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The concept of Time Dollars was originally developed in 1980, born amidst huge cutbacks in government spending for social programs. With less “real” money available to solve social problems and address public welfare concerns, we created a community currency whereby one hour of time spent helping someone else earns one Time Dollar.

People earn one Time Dollar for every hour they spend helping others or building community and spend one Time Dollar for each hour they receive assistance from someone else. I help you, you help another, and that person helps another. We each earn one Time Dollar for every hour we contribute, and the accounting is done in a local TimeBank™.

The services exchanged in a TimeBanking community are core functions for a healthy society – childcare, transportation, eldercare, handyman services, homework help, cooking, respite care, office assistance, tutoring, yard work, companionship, house-cleaning, and neighborhood watch. We all know it “takes a village to raise a child.”

TimeBanking answers the question: What does it take to build and sustain that village? Once put into effect, the revolutionary implications that TimeBanking holds for the social service world became clear: people can help themselves by helping others, and they can convert their personal time into purchasing power by using their own skills and talents. As sponsoring non-profits organizations began to make use of TimeBanking, the effects moved beyond “self-help” to system change.

The reason was simple: Efforts to address major social problems prove more effective in reaching their hoped-for potential when they can enlist and engage the target population as contributors and co-producers. TimeBanking enables organizations to create connectivity, reciprocity, trust, and informal support networks that remain even after the paid intervention is over.

Whether providing eldercare, childcare, juvenile justice, education, family preservation and wrap-around services, healthcare, community development, or individual casework, programs and service professionals consistently find that when client participation is absent, initiatives fail to realize their potential. Our framework, Co-Production™, confronts this dilemma by redefining clients as partners and co-producers who can earn Time Dollars as a validation and reward for their contributions.

Last updated on October 21, 2010 by getavision admin