Time banking, the new money

NORWAY — Many people short of money are looking for ways to do what they know how to do and ways also to cope with economic hard times. For them to share their own skills and meet the needs of others makes sense.

That's especially so if those they are helping can return the favor with their own services. Time thus becomes money, a new kind of currency.

This is time banking and it will be discussed by Stacey Jacobsohn at 7 p.m. on Thursday, September 20, at Fare Share Commons, 445 Main Street in Norway. Stacey leads the Mid-Maine Time Bank in Waterville, where she writes, "We view all members as assets; we all matter.

We value the kind of labor that holds us together. We are equal in the time we have to share; reciprocity creates natural two-way giving. In a community we have all that we need if we use what we have."

Individuals and groups connect, share and learn as they exchange skills through the use of time credit. Community and social networks are strengthened.

Time banking has gone worldwide since its founding in the 1980s. The intellectual author of time banking is U.S. lawyer and political activist Edgar Cahn. To learn more, before hearing Stacey, visit www.timebanks.org or www.midmetimebank.org.

Stacey Jacobsohn, an award-winning researcher as a student, is a musician and graduate student who runs her own faux-finishing interior decoration business, along with exerting a leadership role in the time movement.

For more information about the program, please call Tom Whitney at 743-2183.

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