TIMEBANKIT Model no.5

TIME BANK MODEL : AGENCY TO CLIENT

Theory

• A flat (closed) credit system, with credits originating from the 'bank'
• Initial time audit establishes current level of active community involvement
• Number of credits available is based in time audit and projections for future involvement

Practice

• Members earn credits for active engagement in community activites
• Credits can be cashed in for rewards
• Rewards are themed to compliment focus of work (e.g. a youth project's rewards might be exchanged for residentials or visits to sports events.)
• The awards reinforce the theme of the activity and make it possible for future learning and activity
• Aim is to look at community holistically, not to draw artifical distinctions between community and individual. Therefore a group engaged in communal environmental work would earn credits to be spent on own garden
• Brochures and leaflets are created to advertise the rewards

Factors for Success

• Community group keen to develop greater community working
• Organisations and individuals keen to complete active community audits
• Necessary time and support time available for new groups when developing the approach

Potential Problems

• Organisation may face difficulties in funding 'rewards'
• Project may initially face difficulties in expecting people to 'pay' with credits for activities that were previously free
• Time credits can develop monetary value through comparison with rewards

Examples

Valley Kids, Wales: focus on working with young people to enable them to earn credits from being engaged in generating community improvements through the 'Give and Take' club

TIMEBANKIT Model no.4

TIME BANK MODEL : INSTITUIONAL TIME BANKING

Theory

• A mutual (open) credit system, where credit exists between agency/organisation and person
• Time bank is situated within an employment setting, with membership of the time bank open to employees, staff, students, etc
• Activity may be themed around particular needs of agency leading the time bank or may be more focused on meeting personal needs of staff/employees
• Using time banking tool to create learning organisations

Practice

• To develop a pool of staff who can recognise and develop a wider range of skills than those required directly for their job role
• The time banking tool is a mechanism for creating 'learning organisations' by providing a framework that enables individuals to enhance their professional and personal development and build social and professional networks
• A broker works with individuals and organisations to identify skills and resources that they have, and those they need access to or wish to develop for themselves

Factors for Success

• A core group of individuals and organisations interested in becoming involved
• Everyone involved must have something they need and something they can give

Potential Problems

• important for staff to recognise and receive personal benefits to ensure the time bank doesn't become a way to get more out of people
• wide mix of skills and resources, possibly themed around specific outcomes e.g. personal development, training

Examples from London

Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery 'Time and Talent' bank:

Currently in development this project would use the time banking tool to develop a pool of people who can exchanges expertise, extend and enhance the range and flexibility of programmes that the school can offer.

TIMEBANKIT : model no.3

TIME BANK MODEL : ORGANISATIONAL TIME BANKING

Theory

• A mutual (open) credit system where credit exists between agencies
• Used to facilitate exchanges between organisations for mutual benefit and enhance use of scarce or under utilised resources

Practice

• Time bank can be established within an existing 'hub' or to set up a new network of organisations (may be based around a geographical area or a specific skill/activity)
• When an organisation joins the bank they list the resources and servies they have available and the type of help they would like to receive
• Exchanges are recorded by a 'broker' or network co-ordinator
• Type of exhanges are governed by what is available within the membership but likely to be both resources (e.g. an underused minibus) and skills (e.g. help with writing a funding proposal)

Factors for Success

• Supportive network of organisations with understanding of time banking
• Funding for a time bank co-ordinator, or lead organisation
• Particularly useful when organisations have underused resources
• Core group of local orgainsations with a variety of resources and needs
• Strong local community sector with a history of working together previously

Potential Problems

• Requires membership to be a range of organisations and resources in order to meet a variety of needs
• All organisations need to give and receive

Examples from London

Potentially: VAL's Health & Social Care Network

TIMEBANKIT : model no.2

TIMEBANK MODEL : AGENCY TO CLIENT (SPECIALIST TIME BANKING)

Theory

• A mutual (open) credit system, where credit exists between agency/organisation and person.
• Activities are themed, based around specialist skills of agency leading the time bank eg health or learning.

Practice

• Members earn credits for active engagement in community activities.
• Type of activity undertaken is linked to the organisation running the time bank (e.g. Groundwork running environmental clean-ups).
• Rewards reinforce the theme of the activity and make it possible for future learning and activity.
• Rewards are themed to compliment focus of work (e.g. Groundwork's focus on environmental work means that rewards might be a trip to Kew gardens).

Factors for success

• Community group keen to develop greater community working.
• Organisation able to secure/ provide suitable rewards.

Potential Problems

• Having a single themed activity may reduce appeal of time bank to wide range of members.
• Focus and funding of time banking organisation may actively exclude certain community members.
• organisations may encounter difficulties sourcing funding for 'rewards'.

Examples from London

• Whittington Time Exchange: based with a school, children earn time credits for playground duty, helping with school events, looking after the buddy benchg and the prayer room. Rewards can be cashed in for group trips e.g. picnic trip for children that is paid for in time credits.
• 'Y' Bank, Tower Hamlets: This project works with young people who learn new skills and earn rewards when undertaking environmental clearances in their local area.

TIMEBANKIT model no.1

TIMEBANK MODEL : NEIGHBOUR TO NEIGHBOUR

Theory

• A mutual (open) credit system where credit only exists between individuals
• Exchanges take place between individuals initially set up by a central hub
• Facillitates acts of neighbourliness between individuals

Practice

• Time bank often established as a project within a 'host organisation'
• When an individual joins the bank they are asked to list the skills they can share and the skills they would like to receive
• Exchanges are co-ordinated and recorded by a broker
• Type of exchanges is governed by skills available within the membership
• Projedct is evaluated by number of time bank members, number of exchanges taking place

Factors for Success

• Supportive host with organisation-wide understanding of time banking
• Funding for a time bank brokeer and project manager
• Core group of local supporters
• Visible location (e.g. shop front)
• Clear definition and understanding of project area (geographically & operationally)
• Links to local community sector

Potential Problems

• Essential to avoid over-reliance on the broker by members when setting up exchanges and activities. Broker encourages set-up of 'kitchen cabinet' of members to run activities.
• Important to ensure that the time bank is embedded within the organisation and able to extend/improve existing activites as well as developing new ones.
• Important to have sufficient resources to manage the adminstration of 1-to-1 exchanges.

Examples from London

• Rushey Green Time Bank: launched in 2000 this project is housed within a doctor's surgery, although it is an independent registered charity.

TIMEBANKIT information sheet no. 2

Core Values and Co-Production

The concept of time banking was developed through the work done by Edgar Cahn, an American civil rights lawyer and social justice activist. In the 1980s, he argued that alongside the conventional market economy, where money drives transactions, there is the non-market economy which we mostly take for granted. The non-market economy comprises all those vital social networks and activities in our communities that provide us with friends, family, a sense of belonging, safe neighbourhoods, care for others and personal value.

Time banking is one way of rebuilding and enhancing social networks and activities in the non-market economy. It's a tool that enables people to make that contribution to others that the non-market economy needs in order to function. Edgar Cahn's work outlines four core values that underpin time banking initiatives, these are:-

People are Assets -. The real wealth of any society is its people and everyone is valuable and has something to contribute.

Redefining Work - All work is valuable, whether paid or unpaid. Activites such as bringing up children, caring for people who are marginalized, contributing to and participating in the delivery of state services, keeping communities safe, fighting injustice and making democracy work have to be recognised, rewarded and counted as real work.

Reciprocity - both giving and receiving are important. We need each other and giving and receiving are the basic building blocks of positive social relationships and healthy communities.

Social Capital - Healthy communities have healthy social networks. Belonging to a mutually supportive and secure social network brings meaning to our lives, promotes health and wellbeing and provides new opportunites to rebuild our trust in one another.

Co-production is the term used to describe those reciprocal activities that patients, clients, service users and others undertake with professionals in order to produce an effective service. This moves away from the idea of the undervalued and passive individual who is the recipient of public services and who is percieved only in terms of their "needs" towards an approach which focuses on people as active creators of services with skills and assets. As such, co-production neatly links to time accreditation, one from of putting value to the vital work that people do in their communities. Time banking, as a form of time accredited co-production, is a tool which can enable the core values to be achieved.

TIMEBANKIT information sheet no. 1

WHAT IS TIMEBANKING?

Time banking is a community development tool that uses an alternative currency - time itself - to measure, reward and encourage mutual volunteering and participation in community activites.

Timebanking initiatives enable people to help each other in thier local community. For every hour you spend giving your skills to your community you are entitled to an hour's help in return.

People participate in time banking initiatives for the same reasons that they volunteer, because they want to make a difference, help others, feel valued or because they want to improve their skills, knowledge and experience for specific reasons.

Time banking unlocks the rich sources of time, skills, energy, wisdom and care that are already there in any community just waiting to be invested. Time banking is a tool that can be applied in a wide range of settings, from estates to health projects to youth services. A small neighbourhood time bank can be set up by an individual or by an organisation.

In the UK time banks have been embraced by community regeneration initiatives, voluntary sector organisations, health & social care agencies and a host of community entrepreneurs.

Community participation can include taking part in consultation exercises, attending healthy living events or taking a group of children to school. Time banking uses the term, "CO-PRODUCTION" to describe how the beneficiaries of a public service activity give their time to work in partnership with professionals in the design, planning and delivery of that service or activity. This time can be measured, accredited and rewarded via a time banking initiative. Active public involvement is a critical factor in the success of professional activity and should be understood and acknowledged as "work".

The potency of time banking to connect people is proven. The ways in which they can be used to reward participation and rebuild community have been explored but by no means exhausted.