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Story: Angela Jones (not her real name) is a 91-year-old Elderplan member who has been both deaf and mute since she was one year old. In 1993, she was referred to the Member to Member program by her care manager.

Mrs. Jones was isolated, living in very unsanitary conditions and resistant to having anyone help her. Her only relative, a sister, lived in Queens and was unable to travel to Brooklyn to assist her.

Because she was deaf and mute, Mrs. Jones did not have a telephone so the Program Coordinator corresponded with her through the mail. Through letters, Mrs. Jones agreed to have some minor home repairs done in her home by a Member to Member volunteer.

She was, however unwilling to have a anyone assist her with anything else.
In February of 1994, the New York area was paralyzed by a record-breaking snowstorm. Mrs. Jones’s sister called the Program Coordinator, requesting that someone go to Mrs. Jones’s house to make sure that she was alright.

It was agreed with Mrs. Jones that Maria Castellucci (not her real name), a Member to Member participant, would be coming over to check on her.

The first visit occurred early in March. Mrs. Castellucci immediately liked Mrs. Jones, but was concerned about her condition. The house was in disarray. Mrs. Jones hadn’t been bathing properly and she had also not seen a doctor since she had joined Elderplan a few years prior.
Mrs. Castellucci expressed her concerns to Mrs. Jones, who was reluctant to do anything to improve her situation. Frustrated, Mrs. Castellucci called the Program Coordinator to try and figure out how they could help.

Step by step it happened.
First, Mrs. Castellucci scheduled a doctor’s appointment and escorted Mrs. Jones there herself. Then she convinced Mrs. Jones to meet with a care manager in order to be evaluated for home care services.

Mrs. Jones was wary about letting anyone into the house, so Mrs. Castellucci came to the house to meet the care manager and accompany him in.

On the day when home care was finally set to start, Mrs. Jones turned the home care worker away as soon as she arrived.

Now the home care is steadily in place because Mrs. Castellucci met the home care workers at Mrs. Jones home for the first few times in order to assure Mrs. Jones that she could trust them too.

Mrs. Jones relies on her television for additional visual companionship. When it stopped working, home repair volunteers tried to fix it, but determined that the old television was beyond repair.

Mrs. Castellucci first donated an extra television she wasn’t using and when that eventually stopped working found a fellow volunteer willing to donate an unused television. Marcus Rogers and Peter Hiltz from Member to Member’s home repair team, picked up, delivered and connected the donated televisions for a grateful Mrs. Jones.

Thanks to Mrs. Castellucci, significant changes have been made in Mrs. Jones’s life. According to the care manager, Protective Services for Adults would have had to intervene if it had not been for Mrs. Castellucci ’s help.

Thanks to the determination and persistence of Member to Member staff and Maria Castellucci, Mrs. Jones does not feel alone any more.

-Member to Member, Brooklyn, NY

What Can I Do?

How Can I Get Involved with Time Banking?

If you want to get involved and bring about change through Time Banking, what should you do?

Step One: Find out more

The first step we recommend is to find out as much as you can about Time Banking. Get really familiar with the basics.
If you can, join a Time Bank that already exists. It’s the best way of all to get the feel of Time Banking.
Or
Go to the How It Works and the Where Do I Start? sections of this website. They have been designed to give you a good feel for the basics.

Other places to pick up information
Here are some other suggestions for learning more:

Read "No More Throw-Away People" by Time Banking founder Edgar S. Cahn
See if the descriptions of existing Time Banks on this website offer you inspiration about how to go forward
Learn more about the How-To of using Time Banking to target specific social needs in the Time Dollar How-To Manual, available from TimeBanks USA
Check out Time Banking course offerings. If available, the courses (not the trainings, which are focused on how-to) are specifically intended to open the door to exploration of possibilities and ideas.
Talk with others around you, get them turned on, and explore possibilities with them.

Step Two: Try it out with the WOW! Package

If what you learn intrigues you, we suggest picking up the WOW Startup Package. The WOW Startup Package is modeled on a workshop that has proven extremely successful with community residents, social workers, nonprofit managers, members of boards. It has all you need to run your own interactive workshop (you can do that as many times as you like) and is great for getting an active feel for how Time Banking works. The package includes:

a step-by-step guide to finding members, running orientation meetings, leadership roles, etc.
a DVD with inspirational videos to show to potential members. Total playing time: 47 minutes.
a password to the Coordinator’s only forum where you can meet others who are running Time Banks and download customizable handouts for your Time Bank.
a three month license to invite an unlimited number of guests to try the Community Weaver on-line software that tracks people’s listings and Time Dollar accounts.

Step Three: Check out the options

With information under your belt and experience with the WOW Package, you will be in a strong place to move forward on deciding what kind of Time Bank you would like to set up.

You will have noticed that Time Banking comes in many different shapes and colors. That’s because every Time Bank is a reflection of the community and individuals who began it – and the mission they had in mind to achieve. Whatever they look like, however, most Time Banks are used in one of the four ways listed below. As you read this list, remember that one thing that makes Time Banking so special and so exciting are the possibilities that open up once you’ve got some experience of Time Banking under your belt.

Four Approaches to Time Banking

Here are the four main ways that Time Banking has been used to create community and systems change:

1. Many Time Banks create change by applying the basic approach to Time Banking. They reweave community through exchanges of give and take. Their aim is to strengthen the core economy. Contributions between members and to the community at large help to build a community that fully supports its members and connects it in a richer, deeper way than before. The Portland, Maine East End Time Bank is an example.

2. Some Time Banks use the basic model, but focus their goals to address the needs of a specific population like the elderly (as Partners in Care does), or those with mental disabilities, or caregivers. Whoever the “target” population is, a decision has to be made about whether that should be the whole membership, or whether the Time Bank should include them as part of the larger whole (like the The Lynn Time Bank).

3. Getting more focused still, agencies may sponsor or host a Time Bank specifically to change the quality of partnering between social service professionals and the clients and communities they serve. Clients—and sometimes staff, too, in their unofficial capacity—earn Time Dollars by contributing to outcomes. The National Youth Advocate Program is an example of this type of Time Bank.

4. The fourth way for Time Banking to achieve social and systems change is for agencies to narrowly target the use of Time Dollars to change the dynamics of a system. The Time Dollar Youth Court, where youths earn Time Dollars by acting as a jury of their peers, bringing their own experiences to bear on the cases they handle is an example of this type of Time Bank.

An interesting fact about Time Banking is that it doesn’t matter where you start out; as Time Banks mature, they often branch out and get involved with more than just one of these approaches. For example, a Time Bank that starts out as Neighbor-to-Neighbor group working to reweave the ties of their community may choose to pick up special projects as it grows and learns more about the special needs of its community. The Community Exchange Time Bank developed a program to train community interpreters to help out at a local clinic. Most Time Banks, even those that start with the idea of changing a system through building new partnerships between professionals and clients, find that the most complete way to achieve change is to begin reweaving the community as well.

When will you know what you want to do?

Many times, deciding how you want to get started with Time Banking is very clear. For others, the process is longer. This is especially true in complicated social service settings where many different services or organizations are involved. If at the end of all your exploring you are still not sure what to do, call us. We’ll talk over your situation with you and suggest more leads and information on where to go next.