Time as money

TimeBanks bring together communities around mutual service | Susan Olasky

Evan Hughes for WORLD

On a recent Saturday morning in suburban Detroit, 15 neighbors gathered to paint Don and Tere Turner's basement. Dressed in paint-splattered sweatpants and jeans, they trooped down the stairs, introducing themselves to strangers and greeting by name people they already knew. Cans of paint, rollers, brushes, and paint pans were on a drop cloth in the middle of one room. Craft paper protected the red tile floor in the second. Frank Selinsky, a retired Ford engineer who had helped lay that red tile, handed out assignments, and within minutes people started painting.

The painters and the Turners are members of the Lathrup Village TimeBank, a community group that provides a way for neighbors to give and receive services. The website for TimeBanks USA explains, "For every hour you spend doing something for someone in your community, you earn one Time Dollar. Then you have a Time Dollar to spend on having someone do something for you." Give an hour, get an hour.