This is part 30 of a series. To go back to the very beginning, start with part one. To go back to the start of this section, start with part fifteen.
One of the many projects I arrived in Asheville, NC hoping to learn about was their time bank.
There are a handful of uplifting news topics local agencies dredge up when they have a slot to fill. The kid who’s solved global warming with a contraption he built in the garage. The kid who did a fundraiser to buy her friend a piece of essential medical equipment. The birth of an animal at the local zoo. The local time bank. You’ve probably skimmed a few of these articles, too.
I’d never seen a time bank in action, though. Plenty of them seemed to be chugging along, carried by a few communal houses and eager volunteers, but mostly staying within a pre-existing social group. I thought, incorrectly, that the idea had gotten its start in Ithaca, where their Ithaca Hours currency had been shaping their university town for over thirty years. I’d heard about Ithaca hours from fellow university students I met while volunteering with Food Not Bombs in Rochester, NY.
Neighbors join a time bank and agree to exchange services. In a time bank, an hour is an hour is an hour. Everyone’s time is equal. When you register trades through the time bank, each hour you spend helping gets you an hour of help.
The most common trades are gardening, minor home repairs, errands, rides, tutoring, babysitting, proofreading, and computer help. Some people have specialized trades, while others offer work that’s considered “low skilled.”
It’s pretty radical to value work that typically goes unpaid – like care work – the same as work considered “highly skilled.” Because we live in a world where this is radical, you’re more likely to find offers to bake cookies, pick up groceries, and babysit than to find offers of licensed medical care or legal support. This makes sense to me beyond just adverse selection. In my experiences volunteering, I quickly learned that I did not enjoy spending my free time doing the same thing I did at my job, only without getting paid. Instead I tutored and did graphic design, things I’d previously done for pay. People are more likely to offer “high skill” services when they’ve switched careers or retired.
Exchanges through the time bank are done based on terms members agree on. People don’t need to take on a lot of hours or make long-term commitments. In fact, long-term commitments and big projects can technically get you into trouble with the IRS, as too much mutual aid becomes a taxable event, even if there’s no money involved.
People can agree to services, conditions, and timing based on what works for them. They can start out with small tasks and expand their exchanges with people over time as trust and skills develop. This flexibility makes participation realistic for a lot of people who would struggle with the requirements of a full-time job.
Depending on the community, there may be a nominal fee to join the time bank – either as a one-time enrollment fee or an annual membership fee. Sometimes the cost of running the time bank is covered by donations, grants, or the municipality.
The only other time money may be exchanged on the time bank is if members agree to cover the cost of materials for a project – like gas for a ride to the airport or supplies to repair a deck. While the idea is to trade services – an hour for an hour – no one is going to get kicked out for agreeing to trade veggies from their garden or a bike they no longer use instead of hours if both parties agree to it.
Cities and local nonprofit service organizations fund and support time banks because they fill in the gaps left by formal services. The Visiting Nurse Service of New York and Lehigh Valley Hospital in Allentown, PA, have both created time banks in order to help their clients avoid institutionalization and live more fulfilling lives. People’s needs are unique and formal programs are never going to be flexible enough. People who are wary of getting involved with government services or accepting charity are more likely to participate in a program where neighbors are helping each other.
In cities with established time banks, people will save their hours in anticipation of one day needing more help. One day they’ll cash in these hours for help moving furniture, rides to doctors offices, and whatever other else they’ll need to stay in their home as they age. People with lots of time to offer others can also choose to donate their earned hours (or simply not trade them in).
In Maryland, Partners In Care uses a time bank system to provide a set selection of services for the elderly. In programs like this, time banking becomes virtually indistinguishable from the volunteer / recipient roles of a charity model. Participants are still more likely to be both volunteers and recipients of services than through a traditional charity.
Other niche time banks exist to trade specific types of services (like childcare) or facilitate mutual support within existing communities (like members of a school).
Time baking for people with disabilities
The egalitarian nature of most time banks can help people recognize and appreciate their abilities. People who regularly rely on help from others can forget just how much they’re capable of contributing to a community. Trading support, rather than paying for things in cash, gives people the opportunity to live up to their potential.
Participating in a time bank helps people feel more independent, since it broadens the assistance they have access to while giving them the opportunity to develop their skills and explore their interests. It’s heartbreaking to hear people say they have nothing to offer. They’re shocked when people do want whatever it is they decide they can offer – from prayers, to company running errands, to someone to have coffee with, to creating a collage. Because virtually any service can be offered within most time banks, people can contribute in ways that feel worthwhile to them. Seeing what help people are asking for can remind people of just how valuable and varied their abilities are.
In time banks specifically created to provide assistance for the elderly, members are encouraged to help each other. People can help each other with household chores and repairs, provide rides, provide assistance with shopping and cooking, help each other with administrative tasks, and provide regular check-ins.
Over time, people who’d been accustomed to relying on one person for help come to develop a network of people they know and trust. These connections help make people feel more connected to their neighbors and their community as a whole. Making new friends and getting involved in projects can be intimidating, so the way interactions facilitated by the time bank are structured can help people get involved in a way that feels easier.
One of the best things about offering services through a time bank is that it’s non-monetized. In a world where access to essential services are means-tested, people must either earn enough to cover all of their expenses, including astronomical medical and care costs, or earn virtually nothing. Participation in the time bank allows people to engage in meaningful work when they’re feeling well enough, with any accommodations they require, without risking losing access to essential services. There are, of course, rules you’ll need to follow in order to avoid legal trouble when trading services.
Time banking for family care workers
People whose lives have come to revolve around medical appointments and care can benefit from the way time banks can give them access to support with household chores, errands, and transportation. Care workers may be surprised to find how many of their neighbors are interested in trading respite care and help navigating the systems they’ve come to know so well. NPR profiled a woman who provided rides in her adaptive van, since so many disabled people in her community lacked accessible transportation. This enabled her to get critical assistance caring for her disabled son.
One cool thing about the Asheville Time Bank is that it’s a member of a global time banking platform, Hour World. This allows people to trade hours in different cities. Members use this feature most frequently for tasks that can be done remotely, like editing resumes and getting help with websites. It can also be used to get a local tour guide, place to stay, or home cooked meal while traveling to another city in the Hour World Network. For family caregivers, this feature allows them to help people in their local community in exchange for support for their loved one in a different city.
People regularly trade caregiving support for people’s family members within time banks. In Rhode Island there is a niche time bank for the parents of children diagnosed with a mental health disorder, the Parent Support Network of Rhode Island.
Knowing there are people we can call on to get help is invaluable, even when we don’t use it very often. Time bank posts allow neighbors needing similar types of help to connect with each other, to combine their tasks, share information, and commiserate. Not everyone is comfortable joining a support group. People who would never enroll in a formal support group or peer support program have access to similar types of social support through their participation in the time bank.
Starting and growing a time bank
Those interested in starting a time bank can do so with extensive support and guidance from TimeBank.org.
When starting a time bank, you need an existing group that’s eager to get the project going. It helps if that group has individuals with meaningful ties to other groups, in order to develop a balanced membership. The wider the variety of skills and needs a time bank has, the more likely it is that each member will find their participation valuable.
It’s easy to see why communities like Asheville, NC, Ithaca, NY, and Burlington, VT, have developed successful time banks. Areas with lots of students and retirees have people with time to get involved and skills to offer. Neighborhoods with an active HOA, community center, and faith communities have high levels of trust and existing volunteer networks to build on. People coming from rural communities often have a familiarity with providing everyday mutual aid.
In Asheville there are regular in-person events where existing members can socialize, new members can get up to speed on how it all works, and prospective members can get a feel for how things work. They list events on Meetup.com, in their newsletter, on social media, and on flyers around town, making it easy for people to find out about events. I left my time bank orientation with several new contacts in my phone, which led to meeting people for coffee, going hiking, and learning more about other projects going on in the area.
In the days before widespread internet access, it was a challenge to track hours and match members with complementary skills and needs. With the development of time bank software like Hour World and Community Weaver, this has become much easier. Volunteers are still needed to support the operation of the time bank, but the day-to-day work has been dramatically reduced by software advancements.
One of the hurdles to keeping a time bank going is that it is, as Deborah Scott pointed out, like training wheels for building a community. In her experience working with time banks, she’s seen communities outgrow the need for the formal structure. Members become friends and after a while they stop bothering to record hours. Given that the ultimate goal of a time bank is to develop the local community and foster mutual aid networks, this pattern of behavior is a problem for the longevity of the time bank but ultimately a type of success.
Other non-monetary exchange projects
Quite a few time banks are closely related to other community projects, like repair cafes, tool libraries, free stores, and community supported agriculture. These projects all share the goal of encouraging neighbors to support each other and providing alternatives to relying on cash to solve our problems.
Local Facebook groups can foster similar connections. Neighborhood groups are another place to find a ride to the airport, a neighbor to trade pet care and child care with, get plant cuttings and in-season produce, and unload all sorts of things to make space. Some of these things are free and others are offered at below market rate prices.
While most of the time when I’ve given things away through a neighborhood group there’s just a quick bit of small talk, I’ve also become friends with people through these groups. Even when a trade takes less than a minute, it contributes to a general feeling of neighborliness. During the first lockdown of the COVID pandemic, I relied on neighborhood Facebook groups since all the “non-essential” shops were closed for months and online shopping had weeks long delays. People who gave me things they no longer needed continued to check in on me for months, wanting to reduce our sense of social isolation.
The most common trading groups on Facebook are from the Buy Nothing Project. Another Facebook group to trade goods and services outside of the cash economy, Bunz, turned into a stand-alone project. When I was living in Toronto, Bunz’s non-cash economy often translated into bottles of wine, TTC tokens, and even gift cards. Still, it had a fun community spirit and was spam-free, unlike the rest of Facebook Marketplace or Kijiji. Lots of other people have found friends, love, and community through Bunz. When Bunz accepted angel investment funding and created its own cryptocurrency, active users who objected banded together resulting in the creation of Not-Bunz and Palz Facebook groups. There are still Bunz, Not-Bunz, and Palz Facebook groups for numerous locations and all sorts of interests.