Community Exchange
Share services like yard work, home improvements, guitar lessons and more with your neighbors
Community Exchange is a program in which you voluntarily exchange your skills and services for someone else’s skills and services. If you need help, you simply contact Community Exchange. As a member, you can use our interactive database to find someone who can help you or someone to whom you can offer help.
The talents you’re willing to share are recorded in a database to be matched with someone in need. This could include pulling weeds, helping someone clean out their attic, driving someone to an appointment, or simply providing companionship. When you help someone you earn “time dollars.” You can then “cash-in” the time dollars for services from other members.
Creating a Community Web
Here’s an example of how Community Exchange works:
Tony needed help tiling his bathroom before his new baby arrived. He earned “time dollars” by installing an air conditioner for Carol, driving Ellen to the doctor and helping Linda move furniture. He earned enough “time dollars” to have Frank help him with the tiling.
In exchange for Tony’s help, Carol teaches drawing and transports Community Exchange members to the grocery store. Linda uses her computer skills to assist members with word processing, and Ellen serves on Community Exchange’s advisory board and offers telephone assistance and companionship.
Over and over and over, members exchange their time and skills, building healthy community connections, while learning that receiving is as valuable as giving.
New Member Orientation
All new members attend an orientation, held from 2-4 p.m., the third Monday of each month at the Center for Healthy Aging at Lehigh Valley Hospital-17th Street in Allentown, Pa.
To learn more about Community Exchange or to become a member, call 610-402-CARE.
How It All Started
Community Exchange is affiliated with the Time Banks USA. It originated in the U.S. in the mid-1980s when civil rights lawyer Edgar Cahn developed “time dollars” as a new currency to provide a solution to cuts in government spending on social welfare. He reasoned if there isn’t enough money to fix all the problems facing our country and society, why not create a new kind of money to pay people for what needs to be done?Hear What Community Exchange Members Say:
“It gives me a sense of purpose, and I feel that I’m also giving something in return.” “She hugs me when she says goodbye, and it makes me feel so good.” “I knew that I could rely on somebody, even if I needed to call in the middle of the night.”
This page last updated 3/29/09 12:54 PM
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