Hawk Nest Time Bank

Today I took part in a fairly new concept for our Hawk Nest Community. It's called Time Banking and my friends Nico and Susan (the one's who hosted the dinner Wednesday) are working hard to develop it in our neighborhood. Many people haven't heard of it, but it's a way to create a better community one hour at a time! Here's a little background to help you understand...

If you have ever said: if only I had someone who could... water the plants while I'm on vacation, watch my kid while I run a couple errands, walk the dog simply because I don't have time, finish the basement project, paint a room, wash the windows, clean the gutters, organize the closet, build a deck, clean the house, mow the lawn... you get the idea.

And you know that in return you could help your neighbor... run to the store, hang pictures, cook a great meal, trim the bushes, weed the garden, plant flowers, move furniture, teach Spanish to a two year old, bake homemade goods for their church fundraiser, watch their kiddos while they clean house, etc., etc.... the list goes on.

Then Time Bank is the perfect opportunity to make this happen...it's time well earned and spent! 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. With Time Banking, you will be working with a small group of committed individuals who are joined together for a common good. It connects unmet needs with untapped resources. Here's another way of explaining it...

The premise is that everyone has something to give and everyone has something to offer.

Let's say:
Neighbor A: I need my lawn cut
Neighbor B: I wish someone would do my grocery shopping
Neighbor C: I want to learn Spanish
Neighbor D: I need shelves built in my garage
Neighbor E: I want to learn how to build a website

All of these things could be traded, but unlike traditional bartering, it isn't limited to Neighbors A and B trading services, instead A could help C...D could help A etc... When you help someone for an hour, you earn one credit. You can then "cash" the credit in with anyone in the Time Bank with something you need help with. Everyone is trading time and everyone's time is equally valuable.

When I heard about it from Susan it seemed like a great way to get help with things you may normally have to hire out... babysitter, lawn service, window washers, etc. This way you can find a neighbor who is interested in donating a little bit of their time and you get the help for free. In return you just donate your time to help someone else. As I said it's all pretty new, but once it gets going I think it will turn out to be a great thing.

So to get the ball rolling, those of us who were interested so far got an email and we were to contact the person below our name to offer help. The person who was below my name happened to be my friend Susan. So today I went to her house for a little over an hour and helped her organize all of her baby clothes from the first two years of her daughters wardrobe to put in storage. It felt nice to help her out and knowing in return I'd get some help with something from another Time Banker. Not only did Susan get help with something that she's been wanting to get done, but we also got to have a nice little chat as we were organizing! I happened to be the first one to complete a Time Bank project so Susan & Nico were so gracious as to congratulate and thank me for getting it going! My friend Carla has my name below hers so she's going to be coming to help me for an hour doing something. I'm not sure exactly what yet, but we're figuring that out over the next couple days.

For those of you readers that are in the Hawk Nest Neighborhood and are interested feel free to join along. As I mentioned, Susan and Nico Gisholt are organizing this so you can contact them or if you don't know them you can contact me and I'll let them know! You can also go to www.timebanks.org to learn more about Time Banks.