(Q) Where was your very first Time Bank in the US and is it still around today?
(Edgar) I started experimenting with one in North Miami at the time and St. Louis was doing something very close to what we were doing. The first 6 really came into existence as a result of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation initiative(5) and one was in St. Louis that came out of the Grace Hill(6) and the Morris system they had there but they really didn't have a currency. A second one was in Boston, a third was in Washington, D.C. a forth was in Miami and a fifth was out in San Francisco. The Elder Plan was I think the 6th in Brooklyn
(Q) What year was that?
(Edgar) 1987
(Q) Are these Time Banks still in operation today?
(Edgar) The St. Louis one is, the Elder Plan is and isn't they have now migrated to Visiting Nurses. The one in Boston, really has a year or two ago, it was still barely going because it was a question of funding for the coordinator but others have sprung up and built on it so what you find is that even when they die that the people who are in them bring them back to life wherever they go and it springs up again. The Miami one, which was the biggest on died when funding was cut, it was HUGE after Hurricane Andrew back in 1994 and then it kept going for awhile but the Department of Elder Affairs actually cut all funding for it and they weren't able to survive so the whole question of sustainability that we've seen became a critical issue. Every community currency that can run on volunteer time for awhile and then you hit burn out, as you know. The question of how you create a sustainable infrastructure is what lead me to developing the framework of Co-production. As Willy Sutton asked where's the money. If the money is with the social service agencies and with government agencies that address social problems, then you come and say "hey do we have a deal for you, why don't you partner with the community because you will be much more effective" and all of them are under an increasing a mandate to get citizen participation and citizen engagement and civic engagement but they don't know how to do it because in effect soon or later the volunteers in the community get burned out and ticked off because they are asked to do the work the agency is funded to do. So you have that schism. What we have been gearing TimeBanking for and the reason we have evolved a theoretical frame of system change called co-production was because we were tired of seeing public programs fail and people lose confidence in the government and we were equally tired to see time banks that were trying to address these problems die because they didn't even have the minimum core funding necessary to build the infrastructure but that a partnership between the two would in fact serve both and that was why Co-production emerged and that was born as much out of the sense of justice energy I spoke to earlier and it was only in time that those seeking the connectivness of community understood that they could benefit to from adopting and embracing co-production.
(Q) Is there any a direct partnership or integration between Time Banking and the Federal Government?
(Chris & Edgar) No.
(Q) In our society, everyone has time to spare and underused skills. The fact is that these items are so plentiful across our society means we don't place a high price or value on them. However, in a time bank, value is realized and gained from these plentiful assets. Is it a true statement that "Time banks gives value to what society sees as not having value."
(Chris) Yes.
(Q) I recently wrote about a new Time Bank in New York City. https://www.timebanksnyc.org/
TimeBanksNYC (TBNYC) is a new citywide program connecting individuals who recognize that each person has talents to share, and that the overall community is strengthened when neighbors help one another with a wide range of services. For each hour a TBNYC member spends providing a service or sharing a skill with another member, she or he earns a "time credit" for the exchange. This "time credit" can then be redeemed for a service from someone else in the network, and so on. For more on TBNYC call 866-244-6469
This was sponsored by NYC Service, Department for the Aging and service exchanges are available in all 5 Boroughs. Learn more here: http://www.nyc.gov/html/timebanks/html/home/home.shtml It seems to me that with such a large and diverse population participating in this program that an organization of this size could really change the way many future services are distributed in NYC. What insight can you share with us regarding this operation and did you personally have a hand in getting this one started?
(Chris) The leadership of the TimeBank attended the TimeBanks USA conference and took the one-day pre-conference training. She described the training to us as "outstanding." We adapted the TimeBanks USA Community Weaver software for use by a large number of neighborhoods, all under one TimeBank umbrella. In addition, the leadership told us they received help and advice from other TimeBanks.
(Q) By creating this type of service exchange and giving value to tasks that would otherwise go unused, are you turning the tables on the modern day money society?
(Chris) You know the term "slow food?" TimeBanking is the equivalent of "slow community." It's all about taking time to be with others and to enjoy taking the time to be in relationship of giving and receiving.
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