What is Time Banking?
Today’s all about Time Banking! Timebanking is a great way to offer your skills or spare time to help others. Every hour you give earns you a credit you can use to receive support yourself or to donate to someone.
Timebank Stories
A Time Bank member was taking another member to a social club as they were unable to drive at the time due to an injury. After a while the driver started attending the social club instead of dropping the Time Bank member off and collecting her later. They have since formed a friendship.
An unemployed Time Bank member joined the Time Bank because they were looking for things to fill their time with. He offered to help people with handy man tasks and answered a request to put someones shelf up. The recipient member did not have anyone to put the shelf up for her and because she had been waiting for several years it had begun causing her distress. The shelf was put up and the lady was extremely grateful. Since timebanking, the handy man member is now in employment and feels that the Time Bank helped him to stay motivated and made use of his skills. He said he would highly recommend it to people and has donated his time credits to the Thurrock Pot.
The Time Bank received a call from a local community hub. An elderly lady had gone to the hub to see if she could get some help with her garden as she couldn’t manage it herself. The lady was contacted by the Time Bank coordinator and it was tidied up ready for the winter by the following weekend. A Time Bank member returned a few months later to plant some bulbs ready for the spring.
One of the Time Bank members has been volunteering for over 60 years but unfortunately due to ill health is no longer able to do as much as she would like to. She has received help with general housekeeping chores such as ironing, changing her bed covers etc. She says that one of the best things about timebanking is meeting the young woman who has helped her. She is the same age as her granddaughter who she doesn’t see due to the long distance they live from each other. Both she and the Time Bank member have similar interests such as cooking and she has really enjoys the conversations they have.