“Honestly, one of the reasons we moved back was because of the time dollars,” says Niehoff-Kennedy, 27. “What has been really awesome for us is being able to go to True North in Falmouth.”
This holistic healthcare office is one of more than 750 members of the Portland Time Bank. Like other members, it accepts time dollars as payment in lieu of cash.
According to True North Marketing Director Chris Bicknell Marden, the health center accepts time dollars from members who earn up to 225% of the federal poverty level. Each practitioner determines how many time dollars they’ll accept each month, and the charge is two time dollars per visit. In an average year, 10% of the care delivered at True North goes to Time Bank members, which equals $46,500 worth of care in the cash economy.
“As you can imagine, there’s more demand than we can accommodate,” Marden says. “The day that rent is payable in time dollars, we’ll open up more slots.”
How does it work?
Time banking operates on a simple principle. For every hour of your time you give to helping someone or offering a good or service, you get a credit of one hour in your account. You can then redeem this hour from any of the other time bank members.
At it’s most basic, it’s a cash-free exchange system. But don’t call it volunteering. And don’t call it barter.
“It’s really changing how we think about valuing people,” says Linda Hogan, executive director of the Portland Time Bank. “It’s the concept of reciprocity. That you both give and receive.”
Hogan explains that it differs from volunteering because you get something in return. While it’s similar to bartering, time banking allows you to get something from one person and give something to someone else, whereas barter involves an equal exchange between just two people.
Last year the Portland Time Bank’s members exchanged more than 22,000 hours of services. Using the national standard for the estimated dollar value of volunteer time ($18.77) this adds up to more than $400,000 worth of exchanges.
If you’re interested in joining, but don’t think you have any useful skills to offer, think again. You could offer someone a ride, help with a bulk mailing at a nonprofit, provide gardening assistance or bake a casserole.
Hogan says the most popular services used by members include housekeeping, holistic healthcare (yoga, reiki, massage, acupuncture) and traditional healthcare. The Time Bank offers up members able to repair your home, style your hair, run your errands, cook your dinner, fix your computer or teach you how to sail. Of course you could tap into more exotic services, like fire breathing, tarot card readings or avocado pit carving (“Probably not a lot of demand,” Hogan admits).
Revolutionaries, with time
Time Banking is an international movement that seeks to foster social justice and change. It was started in 1980 by Dr. Edgar S. Cahn as a way to rebuild disenfranchised neighborhoods. There are now more than 50 chapters in the U.S. and in countries such as Canada, Curacoa, the Dominican Republic, Israel, Italy, Japan, Portugal, Spain, South Korea and the UK.
“I think it’s a great resource for social interaction and enriching community,” says Niehoff-Kennedy. “I hope more people are able to be a part of it.”
Niehoff-Kennedy, who operates a small business called Via Jera Herbal and allows members to buy her salves and soaps using time dollars, says she’s made many friends through the network. In addition, she’s benefited from having people walk her dog and bake her a cake.
“You don’t have to be low income, you can be very upper income. You don’t have to be young, you can be elderly,” Hogan says of the diversity of members.
This wasn’t always the case. When the Portland Time Bank began 10 years ago, Hogan says most of the members were low-income, retired folks.
“We now have more refugees and immigrants,” Hogan says. “We’re breaking into the university system and 20-somethings because they’re attracted to art. The latest demographic (we’re attracting) is women ages 40 to 50 without insurance.”
“What we really like about it is it’s an energy exchange,” says Marden, at True North. This jives with the health center’s focus on energy’s role in creating health. It’s a statement that also illustrates the movement’s potential to revalue all people’s inherent worth.
“It’s people doing what neighbors used to do when we had bigger families and integrated neighborhoods,” Hogan says. “This is restoring something that got lost.”
If you want to find these lost connections, give the Portland Time Bank a call. They’ll hook you up with Portland’s burgeoning cash-free economy. And you could even get your hands on that carved avocado pit you’ve always wanted.