Time Banks Pulls in Volunteers, says Study
Regeneration and Renewal, September 2001
by Henry Palmer
The creation of time banks, where people exchange skills and services in cashless local economies, has boosted levels of volunteering among socially excluded groups, according to unpublished research.
The research, carried out by the University of East Anglia, has found that the time bank model is attracting people who had previously never volunteered in their local communities. The researchers surveyed people using 15 of the country's 40 time banks.
More than half of the time bank participants questioned by the researchers said they would not have otherwise been interested in volunteering. More than 90 percent of respondents said time banks were meeting their needs and that they were making new friendships.
Elsewhere, the research found that time banks were succeeding in their aim of exchanging skills. Participants had earned 15,776 hours in time credits and had spent 13,838.
Dr Gill Seyfang, research director at the University of East Anglia, discovered a range of innovative arrangements set up as a result of local time banks existence. She unearthed a group of retired people teaching conversational English to Iranian women and teenagers working as gardeners in return for piano lessons.
Seyfang said that time banks were more attractive to socially excluded groups than traditional forms of volunteering. "It is volunteering with a twist because everyday skills are valued and people who are normally the passive recipients of good deeds are able to access and also give help using the time banks. "Their skills and time are valued and they gain self-esteem from playing an active part, feeling useful and being needed by others."
She added that time banks were proving to be more successful than other "alternative economy" schemes, such as local exchange trading schemes, because they are seen as more mainstream, offering social and community services.
The research is to be unveiled at the It's About Time conference to be held in Birmingham on 2-3 October. For details visit www.timebanks.co.uk