Building Timebanks on a Foundation of Trust

Photo by Joshua Hoehne

This month's conversation explored different approaches to getting a timebank started.

The question came up from two people who would like to start a timebank but aren’t sure of the best way to begin: Is it best to start by reaching out to existing organizations, or is it better to join with a few other individuals and begin with them?

The quick answer is: It depends!  It depends on the nature of the community where you plan to embed the timebank. For example:

• Mike, in Chicago, found that it worked best to start with existing groups, associations and organizations in the city because they already have resources and connections as well as people who will likely be interested in timebanking and are willing to put in the time and resources to grow it.  

• BJ, in St. Pete Florida found that the organizations there just did not "get it" with timebanking – and so she started doing exchanges with a couple of trusted friends who found it helpful and then brought in their own trusted friends and so it grew organically.

• For Sheryl, the key concern is to start small and start with people who trust each other. As a community organizer for a public health department in the Bay Area in California, she introduced timebanking to the community she had already been working with for 18 months to build trust and break down walls of cross-cultural misunderstanding. With the levels of trust growing, she brought in timebanking to build up the community. She started with a small cross-cultural group of individuals who had already built up trust and had a strong presence in the community. 

• Fernando's experience also involved high levels of diversity and the need for organizational backing. His community in Sitges, Spain, was facing the challenge of a large number of recent immigrants with different cultures, languages, beliefs, levels of wealth and so forth. So the question was how to have a timebank where the high levels of diversity would not get in the way of exchanges between timebank members. He and a small group of trusted colleagues discussed how to move forward with the city council to gain its backing. Then, when they were ready to begin, they also started with a small core group of people with the aim of building a solid foundation of knowledge and trust.