Social Change

Creating Social Change with Time Banking

Time Banking can change the world we live in by changing the way the public sector addresses the deep social problems our society still faces.
Children, minorities in poverty, and the elderly are especially hard hit. In these and other areas of social need, Time Banking offers a powerful new approach for social and systems change.

• Why have we made so little progress solving the root causes of social injustice?
• How do we enlist the people we are trying to help as partners and co-workers?
• How does Time Banking unleash untapped community capacity?
• How does "pay it forward" empower more than simple giving?
• What can I do?
• How has Time Banking enabled organizations to fulfill their mission more effectively?
• Is Co-Production™ the right approach for my organization?
• Join our discussion group on Time Banks for Social Justice.

Our society’s problems lead to a tragic loss of human potential. More children are going into foster care than ever before. More children come home from school to an empty house, cope with drugs, cross the line into delinquency, and go to schools that lose 40% of those who enter. The problems don’t end when they grow up. As adults, these children face constantly shifting job markets, difficulties earning a living wage, unemployment, a shortage of affordable housing and health care. Minorities are the targets of racism and discrimination as well.

At the other end of the age spectrum, senior citizens face the loss of a useful role, loneliness, the cost of health care they need to handle the increasing health care needs that aging brings. Our societal inability to tap their wisdom and their experience deprives their final decades of joy.

Time Banking offers a new way out of these problems and a set of principles for addressing social challenges like these.