WELLINGTON South is about to get a new bank, and one thing’s certain – it will run on time.
The Newtown Community and Cultural Centre Trust are setting up a “TimeBank”; a skill-swapping network where time replaces money as the measurement tool. Members do one hour of work to earn one time credit, which in turn can be swapped for an hour of someone else’s service.
“There is real wealth and abundance in the people in a community, and that wealth and abundance doesn’t need to be equated to money,” says project manager Anneleise Hall.
From teaching guitar to giving someone a ride, from painting a house to face painting at a child’s birthday party, from dishing out legal advice to helping grow tomatoes – every skill holds the same value.
“People are so hard up at the moment; there’s only a certain sector of society that’s not under extreme financial pressure at, and anything that eases the burden on the family budget will help… People are also getting hungry to link with their community, they’re recognising that our way forward is together,” says Hall.
The roots of time banking extend back to 1980, when US lawyer  Dr Edgar S Cahn dreamed up ‘time dollars’ as a way to aid social welfare in the face of huge funding cuts. TimeBanks already operate all over New Zealand – Otaki and Taita recently set one up and Petone has a small one – but some have been particularly successful.
The Lyttleton TimeBank, of which Hall was a board member, has more than 400 members – representing around one in five households in the community – and has played a big part in helping the community get back on their feet after the Christchurch earthquakes.
“Membership went up around 25% after the earthquake… It’s such a powerful tool for community resilience… It all starts and ends with your community – if everything else crashes they’re the people you’ll be relying on,” says Hall.
The Wellington South Time Bank is still in its planning stages – Hall expects to see it running by spring – and 80 people have already signed up for TimeBanking mailouts.
“The level of enthusiasm in this community is extraordinary. When I’m out doing brochure runs people stop me and actually ask for brochures… It’s really quite overwhelming.”
“[With the current system] everyone’s in debt and in competition... It’s not an empowering, life-enhancing or supportive operating system for the majority of families. The idea behind time banking is so universal – that we deserve to get help when we need it, and that there’s a joy in giving. It’s based on lovely values that are non existent in our cuurent money value system… and it feeds the glue that holds our communities together.”
Email wgtn.timebank@gmail.com, or attend workshops at the Newtown Hall at 2pm, August 10, or 6pm August 15.