By Dr. Edgar Cahn
I wanted to share with the TimeBanking community a potential both for expansion and for funding. Every state and every community is undertaking to deal with disaster preparedness. Disasters come in many forms: natural disasters and human-made disasters ranging from arson to 9-11. Resilience is how we characterize a community’s ability to respond, to mitigate harm, to renew itself, to take preventive measures. TimeBanking provides an embedded resource of critical importance.
The need for resilience is going to increase. Global warming has heightened the unpredictability of Mother Nature. Fires due to sustained draught, floods, arson, and terrorism increase the need to invest in flexible networks that can respond immediately and incorporate floods of volunteers into systems of strategic support.
The potential contribution that TimeBanking can make first surfaced in August 1992, when Hurricane Andrew hit the southern tip of Florida wreaking havoc on what was then an unprecedented scale. Southern Miami was the home of what was then the largest TimeBanking program founded in 1987.
It had survived and spread to reach the areas hardest hit. The TimeBank membership responded to the devastation before the National Guard and the Red Cross arrived—providing guidance to the teams that landed and were unfamiliar with the terrain. Everyone was enlisted sorting clothes, delivering food and water. The 1993 total of time credits exceeded over 150,000, providing sustained relief for hurricane victims. By 1994, more than 3,000 members were earning over 12,500 time dollars a month.
Lessons from Hurricane Andrew seemed to have been forgotten when it came to Katrina. They were remembered, however in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, the second-costliest hurricane in United States history.
A report from New Zealand on the role of the Lyttletown TimeBank as the builder and mobilizer of resources during the deadly earthquakes in and around Christchurch in 2011, has been going the rounds at FEMA. Disaster specialists are "discovering that TimeBanking might just be a uniquely inexpensive and powerful form of disaster preparedness.” The Lyttletown TimeBank report[1] notes:
During the earthquakes, the Lyttelton Time Bank had the best local communication system through which vital information flowed to members and local residents. Using a range of communication modes, timely information was provided to residents on practical and safety precautions, as well as the availability of clean water, food, services, and other resources.
As a partner working with emergency workers and first responders, the Lyttelton Time Bank had a better knowledge of the community. It acted as a hub organization activating its extensive social network through which valuable resources could flow. For example, when at-risk families and groups were identified, TB members offered home visits, emotional support, food, accommodations, repairs, and so forth. Problems were solved in the immediate aftermath of the earthquakes, such as dismantling chimneys that could be safely removed, thereby freeing emergency workers to assist on projects that needed greater skill. Or, TB members visited elderly residents providing emotional labor, which freed medical personnel to deal with more acute medical problems.
"Community resiliency involves the process through which a community positively adapts following a crisis. Research suggests that community resiliency improves when communities can quickly mobilize a range of resources. This is a real strength of the time bank model since resources are identified, developed, and activated through hundreds and thousands of trades."
The report (which will post on our website) provides a valuable step-by step process that incorporates TimeBanks as partners in emergency planning and management. It provides the “raw material” for discussions with officials charged with planning for disasters and grant proposals or contracts that will embed TimeBanking as a part of the civic infrastructure that should be viewed as essential as streets and utility lines.
[1] Lucie K. Ozanne, Julie L Ozanne, Developing Local Partners in Emergency Planning and Management: Lyttleton TimeBank as a Builder and Mobilixer of Resources during the Canterbury Earthquakes (2013)
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