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Good Skills Make Good Neighbors
Setting up a "skill swap" allows
neighbors to trade services, save money, and strengthen
bonds within the community.
By Debbe Geiger
Article re-printed from Better Homes
& Gardens, March 2004
Anne Slepian had been thinking about ways to get to
know the neighbors in her town of Arlington, Massachusetts,
but like most busy people, she found that the opportunities
always seemed to slip away. Then one day, it occurred
to her that the best way might be to share each other's
hobbies, skills, and talents through a neighborhood
bartering system.
Anne went door-to-door, sharing her brainstorm. "I
took cues from what 1 saw," she says of her initial
visits. "If there was a guitar in the background,
1 asked them if they'd be willing to give lessons.
Some people had tools they were willing to lend. Or
they said, 'I have little kids and 1 would love to
exchange babysitting with somebody.'"
Eventually, Anne had a four-page list of names, phone
numbers, and items, but she soon realized nobody was
willing to use it. "People weren't going to give
and receive with people they didn't know personally.
" Undeterred, she organized the first of what
would be many neighborhood potluck dinners. Everyone
who came wore a name tag indicating one thing they
wanted to swap. "Once people got to know each
other," Anne says, "they were more inclined
to call each other and say, 'Hey, 1 need help moving
a couch.'"
Today, nearly 20 years later, Anne's neighborhood
is thriving. She says the true beauty of the exchange
is the close-knit, friendly community it helped to
create. "The exchange and potlucks woo people
who want to interact in a neighborly way. It means
a lot to people," she says.
COMMUNITY COOPERATION
Neighborhood exchanges like Anne's hark back to a
time when folks routinely gathered together for a
barn raising or pitched in to help each other bring
in the harvest. However, as people lead busier, more
insular lives, "that neighborhood or community
exchange has gone out of our society," says Neva
Goodwin, Ph.D., codirector of the Global
Development and Environment Institute at Tufts University
in Medford, Massachusetts.
"People now count on getting their needs met
through the formal market. If you have money, you
buy it, and if you don't, you can't."
That may be changing as organizations, such as the
Time Dollar Institute in Washington, D.C., help areas
create formalized programs in which time is given
a value, and a computerized system keeps track of
credits earned from services rendered.
"The time/dollar concept is very simple,"
says the group's founder, Edgar Cahn, a law professor
in Washington. "One hour equals one hour regardless
of the activity." Ideally, to avoid tax problems,
time/dollar and similar exchange programs shouldn't
involve cash - no one gets paid. "This is not
a commercial exchange, so it's not a commercial barter
and it isn't subject to tax as if it were real money,"
he says.
Instead, the concept puts a value on people skills
and talents that are often considered valueless in
a currency-based market (see "Services Rendered,"
page162). "You can create a database that tells
you about the incredible richness of people and their
talents and abilities," says Cahn. "People
may not have marketable skills, but they can spend
time with a child, teaching her to tie her shoes or
the difference between green and blue."
The benefits touch people from all walks of life.
"It might be a teenager who has a hard time finding
work," says Goodwin. "Or it might be a retired
person or someone who is bedridden and normally wouldn't
be able to afford help for certain services."
Through a time/dollar program or neighborhood exchange
service, that bedridden person could, for example,
make phone calls to someone else who is ill or housebound
and needs a little human contact. The time spent doing
that equals value within the network that can be applied
toward, say, having someone make a casserole dinner
or walk the dog when you're out of town. "It
turns out that people have something to offer that
is really valued by other human beings even if it
doesn't have a market value," Goodwin adds. "That
is an enormously important thing to achieve."
A BIGGER FAMILY
Programs like these give people the sense that they
are playing an active role in society, says Andrew
Wolk, a professor of social entrepreneurship at Boston
University in Massachusetts. "They're not just
receiving; they're giving in a way that makes them
feel as though they have some value. It helps people
discover skills they have and ways in which to exchange
those skills that don't revolve around money,"
he says.
Many service exchanges are coordinated by hospitals,
houses of worship, or nonprofit community organizations.
In Minnesota's Washington County, the six-year-old
Neighborhood Service Exchange is run by a nonprofit
volunteer agency. The 160-plus members share a common
bond, regardless of their age, economic status, or
race, says program manager Cathy Dyball. People have
varying needs, from changing a lightbulb and getting
to the grocery store to phone calls, yard work, cooking
a meal, or fixing a computer. "We keep track
of the volunteer hours," she says. "They
accumulate what we call credits. People spend them
to get someone to help them. That's where the connections
develop. Many people become friends just by sharing
services and getting to know each other."
There can be problems, of course. Some participants
may take advantage of the system, using several hours
of other's people's skills, then becoming unavailable
when it's their turn. But skill swap administrators
say the opposite is actually more common: Too many
participants offer their skills, but when it comes
time for them to use the swap system, they often balk,
feeling that it's better to give than to receive.
Anne Slepian stresses the importance of having meetings
or publishing newsletters to get the word out, reminding
everyone to use the system. It's not just a matter
of tapping skills for personal use; it's also a way
for communities to build stronger bonds.
"People are so busy, they don't feel like they
belong in the community and don't know how to reach
out to those around them," says Cathy. "These
programs help people connect with each other. They
feel more involved and become more involved at other
levels. They tend to vote more often, they tend to
be more concerned about urban plight, and they care
more about what their neighborhoods look like. They
start thinking about how to make life better for people
around them," she says.
That's exactly what Cahn was striving for. "Neighborhoods
are the ecological niche of our species. If we don't
keep them vibrant, alive, safe places where people
can trust each other, we lose the habitat that our
species needs to survive."
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