The History of Time Banking
Dr Edgar Cahn, Civil Rights Lawyer and Activist, came up with t the time banking system, whilst at the London School of Economics in the 1980's. One hour equals one time credit was not exactly rocket science but his ideas were to prove radical, even though economists at the time argued about whether this new community currency based on time could actually grow social capital and revive the center economy of family, neighbourhood and community.

On his return to the USA Edgar Cahn put his ideas into practice. Over the next 10 years time dollar projects emerged all across the USA, led by community workers and leaders working in deprived inner city neighbourhoods.

These first projects attracted interest in Japan where there are now hundreds of hybrid time dollar/LETS schemes, many with Government backing.

David Boyle, Senior Associate at the New Economics Foundation wrote 'Funny Money' in the later half of the 1990's after visiting time dollar projects in the USA . A Community Development Specialist, Martin Simon, then a Community Development Specialist, attended the first national time dollar congress in Portland, Maine. In 1998 they joined forces with Joy Robinson and Sarah Burns and the first time banks were opened , first the Fair Shares Time Bank in Stonehouse in Gloucestershire and then in a Rushey Green GP's surgery.

The development of time banks and the amount of interest in time banking in the UK has been truly astonishing. The number and range of applications of time banking has far exceeded everyone�s most optimistic expectations and time banks now support neighbourhood renewal, health improvement, life long learning, conventional volunteering, care for the environment and all other forms of community enterprise.

To quote Edgar Cahn, "You have achieved more in the past five years in the UK than we managed in the USA in twenty".