What is the Community Timebank Register?

Community Timebank exists to allow people to contribute their skills to the community and to benefit from the skills of others in the community.
To achieve this, the office develops and maintains a secure and confidential register listing local people and their areas of interest and expertise.
If you are not in the register you may be left out!! This register allows new activity groups to be formed and connections to be made.
See below for a practical examples (real names withheld):

Name	Expertise	Interests
Micheal Collins	Historian	Youth Work, GAA
James Dean	Salesman	Hillwalking, Music
Nancy O’Brien	Management	Sports, Clean-Ups
Mary Robinson	Chef	Irish Language, Music
Sam Maguire	Mechanic	Music, Reading, GAA
Liam McCarthy	Engineer	Youth Services, Music
Paul Hewson	Doctor	Music, Youth Services
Roy Keane	Journalist	Car Maintenance
Sonia O’Sullivan	IT Specialist	Hillwalking, Youth Work

The Register Works In Three Ways:

1. Creating Activity Groups
   
   • Sonia O’Sullivan rings the Timebank Office saying she would like to start a Hillwalking club.
   • The Facilitator goes through the register and contacts everyone who has written down Hillwalking as an interest (for example James Dean and Liam McCarthy), and asks them if they would be interested in joining a Hillwalking club and may their contact details be passed to Sonia.
   • In this way, Sonia now has the contact details of people who want to start a Hillwalking group.
   • A meeting is called and all interested people are invited to attend.
   • The facilitator chairs the first meeting and then some one in the group takes over in a leadership role.
   • Timebank continues to support the group by publicising meetings and events and offering any other support that the group requests.

2. Contributing Skills
   The other way in which the register works is to allow people to contribute their skills to the community.
   • Mary Robinson rings the Timebank Office and says she would like to do a car maintenance course.
   • The office then calls Roy Keane and asks him would he be willing to run a 6 week car maintenance course.
   • Roy agrees and Timebank then publicises the course and invites local people to attend.

3. Making Connections
   
   • Sam Maguire is an avid supporter of a local GAA team and he drives to all the matches.
   • Sam breaks his arm and is unable to drive.
   • Sam rings the Timebank office asking if anyone else living near him goes to the matches and would give him a lift.
   • Timebank searches the register by location and by interest area, and contacts Micheal Collins to find out if he drives to the matches and whether he can give Sam a lift.
   • Micheal agrees and a connection is made between the two.

Is there any other information you need? Feel free to contact us!