Mid Maine TimeBank: How to Build Social Capital

Posted by: Stacey Jacobsohn

                                 

Stacey Jacobsohn
Coordinator

The fabric that binds a community together is the sharing of care and sense of belonging it fosters, otherwise known as  social capital. Most will agree that it is in short supply; typically, one barely knows his or her neighbors and rarely asks them for favors. 

There is one person who lives in abundance, though she owns little in the way of material possessions. Sheila Malone, TimeBank Membership Director, weaves the fabric of a fledgling community, and she is an expert seamstress of that sort.

Sheila Malone
Membership Director

In the summer of 2009, I found myself leading the start-up of the Mid Maine TimeBank, a grassroots mutual time exchange. Following the guidance of  Edgar Cahn, Time Banking’s founder, and the core values as set forth by TimeBanks USA, I was overwhelmed.  Nothing seemed to go as I had hoped. Theories and all my studies of Time Banking fell apart. One person, one voluntary assistant, came to my daily aid. Sheila arrived ready to work in a motorized wheelchair. She came to the office twice a week, calling references for new members (which she does to this day), and putting to work her nursing and administration skills. She obtained rides to her doctor from members in exchange but claimed she “was receiving much more than that.” Her vitality amazed me, though her medical history read like a Stephen King novel (scary and long). A retired nurse, she deftly played out designs of organizational scenarios. She educated me in policy-making; I educated her in Time Banking. We set out to build social capital in our town. Our relationship grew close, but I didn't realize at the time that it was the central issue. It came in steps, one hour at a time.

All the while, we laughed and cried together; I pealed with laughter at her teenage escapades in the '60s. I gaped at the story of giving the Beatles an escort in a green Nash Rambler out the back of a show with her sister, only to be seen on television by her father, who had strictly forbidden her attendance of the concert at the Cow Palace. Stories of meeting Jimi Hendrix and living with Janice Joplin entranced me. Sheila loved to talk.

Together we worked to help Libby, another member with mobility problems nearby. She had come to the TimeBank to offer leadership and obtain help on her farm. Her farm was an expression of her spirit, of beauty and loving intent, a large place in need of a carpenter and yard assistance. It took a while to gather enough members with the right skills near Libby. I recruited; Sheila processed. She was relentless on the phone tracking references and making matches. After a year, we finally gathered ten members to prepare Libby’s farm for winter. We gathered and stacked wood, painted, raked leaves, ate together, and tucked in the flower beds before the snow.

Later, one couple who attended the event thought about Libby and her struggles to maintain the woodstove for winter heat. Rob, a handy sort of person, crafted a wood box on wheels for Libby’s basement to help her move firewood, making her life infinitely easier. This year, they thought of her again.  As Rob cut trees from his woodlot, he saved her the round "biscuits," the tops of branches, and cut them to the length of her shallow woodstove. We loaded them in a truck and brought them to her in the fall. Perfect.

For TimeBank members, the contrast is clear between the charity or assistance they have received in the past and the giving that takes place in the TimeBank. For Libby and Sheila, using the TimeBank to fill some of their needs also fills their need for dignity. Says Malone, “I do my part, and I have a lot to offer. It’s okay to need things. We all do.”

Time Banks create social capital by creating a need for relationships to start and a space for them to grow in natural, reciprocal cycles. Time counts.

Our social fabric has become threadbare, in need of a seamstress. How do we start again, to create not just prosperous but vibrant communities?  Could it begin with just one person?

No, we needed two. For me, and every member of our TimeBank, it all comes back to Sheila, our community weaver.

December 2011 Potluck