Nov 24, 2013 – Burien TimeBank Meeting

  • WHAT: TimeBank in Burien?
  • WHEN: Sunday, November 24th, 2 p.m.
  • WHERE: Burien Library, 2nd floor conference room
  • WHO: Dave Asher, Chair of TimeBanks Puget Sound.

What is a TimeBank? It’s neighbors exchanging time to help neighbors. At its most basic level, TimeBanking is simply about spending an hour doing something for somebody in your community. That hour goes into your TimeBank account as one credit hour. You then have a credit hour to spend on having someone else do something for you. All hours are valued equally. Joining the TimeBank gives you access to the talents, time, and skills of your neighbors, while giving you an opportunity to help others in meaningful ways. It’s a great way to get connected with others in your community. Here’s a link: http://tops.timebanks.org/.

If you’d like to read more, I’ve lifted the following right off of the Puget Sound TimeBank webpage:

Purpose:

The purpose of Timebanks of Puget Sound is to build more resilient neighborhoods by providing infrastructure for communities around Puget Sound to form local timebanks. Neighborhood or community timebanks can, in turn, give or exchange services within and among neighborhoods across the greater Puget Sound region.
In timebanking, everyone’s time is equally valuable and equally valued.

The resilience of our communities is increased by:

  • mobilizing existing human capabilities in our neighborhood to meet community needs,
  • enabling all in the neighborhood to contribute as assets in community service,
  • improving the health and well-being of those with needs,
  • providing opportunities for those underemployed or unemployed to both contribute service and also receive from someone here in the community, and
  • strengthening the bonds between neighbors and neighborhoods.

Core Values

Professor Edgar Cahn founded timebanking in the United States based on Five Core Values:

  1. We are all assets. We all have something valuable to give. We have enough if, together, we use what each of us has. Ninety percent of what you are able to do never appears on a resume but can be very valuable to someone else.
  2. Some work is valuable beyond price – and that work needs to be recognized and rewarded. Everyone benefits when we work to raise healthy children, strengthen neighborhoods, build strong families, live sustainably, and foster social justice.
  3. Helping works better as a two-way street. Sure, you can give – any do-gooder can do that. When we create a reciprocal system, you have to learn to honor other’s value by receiving what they have to offer. You create value by accepting the service of others. Others can’t give unless someone receives.
  4. We need each other. Networks are stronger than individuals. People helping each other reweaves communities of support, strength, and trust. Community is built upon establishing roots, building trust, and creating networks. Special relationships are built on commitment to one another.
  5. Every human being matters. There are no throw-away people. Respect underlies freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and everything we value. Respect supplies the heart and soul of democracy. When respect is denied to anyone, we all are injured. In timebanking, an hour of a street-sweeper’s time is honored the same as an hour of a brain surgeon.