Yesterday, NSW Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Citizenship & Communities launched his new Volunteering Strategy at an event at Governor Macquarie tower in Sydney.
Cyrius Creative Director, Stefan Sojka was invited as a constituent of Victor's electorate and as one of the contributors to the strategy, in the form of a formal submission. Stefan submitted a suggestion that ‘Timebanking’ become a part of the Volunteering Strategy.
Timebanking, which is very popular in the US and the UK, among other countries, is a mechanism where volunteering hours are valued through an online Timebank, administered by a broker and able to be traded or exchanged for other volunteer services, using a concept called co-production.
Stefan's interest in Timebanking came about through hearing a talk on the concept via www.thersa.org and following up with further research. It is also interesting from the fact that it is a Web-based idea that takes advantage of the networking capacities of the Web and the information management tools available.
On the day of the Volunteering Strategy launch, it was also announced that two Timebanking pilot programs are being set up. The Strategy mentions Timebanking as an emerging trend in volunteering and it is very pleasing to see the State Government supporting two trials of the concept.
We look forward to seeing how those trials turn out and whether or not the concept can gain wider acceptance. For more information about Timebanking in the US, go here, or for the UK go here.
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