Our Mission Statement: To provide a system of exchange where individuals and groups with needs and wants are answered by members with services, skills and resources for the purpose of building community.
When you provide a service for a Timebank community, you earn one Timecredit for each hour served (15 minutes = 0.25 Timecredit). You may then spend your Timecredit(s) on any of the hundreds of offers through the international Timebank software or personally within the Kent Community Timebank. We use a browser software to record every transaction. This legitimizes exchanges to be occuring within the non-profit Timebank.
Therefore Timebanking is not bartering. It is not volunteering. It is building community in a way that utilizes our skill as assets and meets our needs, and values each person equally.
The Timebank is managed using a software program called hOurworld. Through this software, members offer or request services. Providing or receiving Timecredits, is how a member rewarded for service or a resource, and this exercises reciprocity. The software also serves as the “third-party” for each transaction by recording Timecredits using hOurworld. Click HERE to access the main hOurworld site. From the “Software” tab you will find resource links such as videos on how to use hOurworld.
You can apply for membership HERE. The Timebank offers orientation in-person. Once you have attended orientation, our membership committee will activate your membership and you will be free to make exchanges.
We use many tools to help our members communicate — several Facebook pages, a monthly newsletter, and regular in-person events. The driving force of the Timebank is the community of members, who utilize the hOurworld software as documentation of the resourcefulness of our community.
- hOurworld Software: hourworld.org/bank/index.htm?hw=2058
- KCTB t-shirts and swag: https://kenttimebank.threadless.com/
- KCTB Membership Application: https://hourworld.org/bank/Join.php?hw=2058
- General Information on Timebanks: https://www.timebanks.org/
- Facebook KCTB Members’ Group (prospective members welcome): https://www.facebook.com/groups/337132267797
