Is time on your holiday wish list? The Phoenixville Area Time Bank offers time like no one else. Recently, I met with Margo Ketchum, PA Time Bank coordinator, and learned how to make the most of my time both giving and receiving it in a whole new way.
With participants ranging in age from 18 to 84, the PA Time Bank includes people from all walks of life who are interested in freeing their time by giving what they love to do and receiving the services they need. Services for exchange include anything people enjoy doing like home repair, babysitting, pet care, transportation, yard work, computer help, language lessons, reading aloud and much more.
According to TimeBanks.org, the concept of time banking started back in 1980 when Dr. Edgar S. Cahn, co-founder of the National Legal Services Program, author of “Our Brother’s Keeper,” and founder of the Antioch School of Law, suffered a massive heart attack. Feeling useless as he recovered, he conceptualized the idea of banking hours for service completed and exchanging them for one’s needs as they arose. He saw it as a solution to massive cuts in government spending on welfare. Making time a currency, participants could give of whatever they could offer and receive services they were unable to complete themselves. The theory of co-production outlined in Edgar’s book, “No More Throw Away People” (2000, 2004) became the overarching framework for Time Dollars now used by TimeBanks USA.
In its membership handbook, the PA Time Bank reinforces the five tenets of TimeBanks USA which include the belief that everyone is an asset and has the capability of being a contributor to the well-being of others, that community-related work should be validated and rewarded, that we need each other, that belonging to a mutually supporting and secure social network helps us rebuild trust, and that every human being is worthy of respect in the moment, not where they may be at some future point.
The PA Time Bank’s mission is “to provide and foster an effective local service exchange system through which participants have their needs met and their personal abilities valued, by using hours as currency. The ultimate goal is the building of a strong, responsive, and connected community.”
Ketchum adds that the economy is causing much more interest in this unique system of bartering time and even non-profits are tapping into the system as an organization. The membership has grown from 105 to 160 in the last year alone.
“It feeds people to share what they have to offer and do what they love,” says Ketchum. Being involved in the PA Time Bank helps you get to know your neighbors, save money, give what you want, get what you need, connect unmet needs with untapped resources and make your neighborhood a better place to live. You can even donate your hours of service to the PA Time Bank Helping Fund which gives to those who need it.
By being coordinator, Ketchum says, “I get to meet most everybody. [I like to] meet people and see how enthusiastic and excited everyone is.” Carla Schaeffer is a participant who benefitted when she needed help moving while her arm was injured. She gives back through orienting new members and setting up exchanges.
Interested participants can go to the website www.PA-TimeBank.com and follow the link to the interactive web system and click “Join” to enter new information. Registered members use the log-in function to track hours, see requests and offer services. By attending an orientation, participants can earn two time dollars and are allowed to “go in the red” if they request more than they can currently offer. Those from outside the Phoenixville area can go to the official website TimeBanks.org to learn about either joining a local time bank or starting one of their own.
In the Phoenix, December 2009
CHECK out my post about Bloganthropy over on my site Genesis Moments about pledging hours to a local charity and using social media to encourage others to participate!
