TimeBanks USA Conference in Madison

Dane County Time Bank press release

The Dane Co. Timebank, UW-Madison, and TimeBanks USA are proud to announce the upcoming TimeBanks USA Conference, A Time For Justice, A Wealth of Opportunity, to take place at the Concourse Hotel in Madison, WI June 25-27, 2009.

The conference will bring hundreds of people from around the world to explore the many ways that TimeBanking is being applied to community-building, social justice, health promotion, and humanitarian goals. Included in the conference programming is a colloquium on racial disparities in the criminal justice system, including potential legal remedies and community-based alternatives.

We expect people from UK, Israel and Ghana in addition to representatives of TimeBanks around the US, plus scores of people working to start TimeBanks in their communities.

For more conference information and registration, see
http://tbusaconference.org

For more information about TimeBanking, see
http://timebanks.org
http://danecountytimebank.org

BACKGROUND: TimeBanking is an exchange system. People help each other and receive credits for their service. Anyone who helps another member earns one time dollar per hour, which they can then spend on an hour of service from anyone else in the network. TimeBanking is a way to value the work we do for others in our community and the work we do in building that community. Instead of going without things because we cannot afford to pay each other with money, we exchange time.

DANE CO. TIMEBANK BACKGROUND: On October 20, 2005 the Dane County TimeBank, in partnership with the Northside Planning Council and with support from City of Madison Planning Dept. and Dane County Human Services, launched a pilot neighbor-to-neighbor TimeBank on Madison's Northside.

Dane Co. TimeBank, at less than 4 years of age, has 1260+ members throughout Dane Co., more than 80 of whom are community organizations. Members have exchanged nearly 30,000 hours of service ranging from transportation and babysitting to computer repair and music lessons, and Dane Co. Timebank offers a Youth Court program in three locations around Madison.