Link: Neighborhood Transformation: From Handouts to Development « Communities First Association

Most economically challenged communities experience scarcity of resources such as food, clothing, and especially things that cannot be purchased with food stamps like cleaning supplies, diapers and paper products. Over the past few years we have been experimenting with ways of providing for these basic needs of our community without fostering dependency.

In Asset Based Community Development the first question we ask is, “What does the community have to work with?” In our community, the answer to this question is time. Less than 30% of the residents are employed. This reality led us to experiment with various forms of time-banks over the years. In a “time-bank” system, participants earn “service credits” when they serve in the community. Those credits are then redeemed for goods and services. We are just getting our time bank off the ground in Hillside Court, but we used this approach extensively for our furniture bank program. The advantages to this approach, which is very similar to a co-op model, are very exciting.

via Neighborhood Transformation: From Handouts to Development « Communities First Association.