In Colombia, A Timebanking Revolution Blossoms

As TimeRepublik has grown and expanded, we have witnessed how timebanking has created unbreakable trust between strangers who can collectively work to transform each other’s lives and contribute to a more just economy.

In recent years, we’ve also been fortunate to work with municipalities and local governments to bring timebanking to communities in a more structured way. Our pilot program helped the Northern Italian town of Sarre boost civic engagement when it did not have the resources to pay people to perform basic tasks. TimeRepublik created a timebank where people performed tasks like cleaning parks and helping the elderly in exchange for TimeCoins they could use to rent out facilities or receive help from their peers.

Our dream is to help local groups empower their communities through art and entrepreneurship and transform abandoned and dilapidated neighborhoods. Collectively, we can reweave the fabric of society.

We are incredibly proud of our partnership with Corporación Contigo Colombia (CCC), a nonprofit entity focused on transforming cities through sharing economy projects. It has done so in various cities in Colombia and, recently, Mexico City. Its goal is to position Colombia as a beacon for social innovation in Latin America and beyond. Colombia is a fertile ground for timebanking, thanks to the National Development Plan of 2018–2022 that pushes for greater equality throughout the country.

Source: CCC Instagram

Through TimeRepublik, CCC has debuted several different timebanks, all with different objectives, including those focused on community, corporate, cultural, tourism, and environmental initiatives and communities.

Here are four recent successes:

1. In December 2020, it launched Creo en Mi, an exclusive timebank for entrepreneurs in Bogata with an initial goal of signing up 50 women. In one month, they registered more than 400 interested parties who immediately understood they could create a collaborative community where everyone wins.
2. CCC launched a community challenge at a Keya timebank where more than 20 women worked to create “La eXcuela,” a public learning space that now benefits the entire community.
3. Medellin Music Network in 2019 created a 7-day event, which brought together more than 170 musicians in 61 events, and benefited more than 40,000 people. Each person and organization involved did so through timebanking. They were incredibly proud to demonstrate that an entire city could use music and timebanking to create such a powerful event.
4. “El Centro Crea” has connected more than 100 Bogotá-based entrepreneurs, groups, and artists that use their collective power to amplify human rights and the LGBTIQ+ population, hip hop movements, feminist collectives, muralists and graffiti artists, musicians, among many others. It has been so successful that the Ministry of Culture is contemplating including the model in its entire system.

Over 8,000 individuals have joined CCC timebanks available exclusively on TimeRepublik to share their skills and passions and help their fellow humans.

“We want to build a renewed vision of the future for the country by taking the timebanks to every possible community and promoting a new ecosystem to generate social capital, trust, and organize collaboration between all the people and organizations that live in Colombia,” CCC Executive Director Natalia Florez Arias told TimeRepublik in an interview.

The ultimate goal? To renew citizen trust through a reimagined model of work, family, and personal time focused on improving the quality of life and the well-being of Colombian society in general.

“This will allow us, through experimentation, to continue exploring and validating ideas that lead us to find possible solutions, which contribute to solving the challenges we currently face as a society,” Florez Arias told TimeRepublik. “On a personal level, there are many testimonies that fill us with pride and happiness every day, especially because of the opportunity that it has meant for TimeRepublik users in Colombia, to be able to connect with a global community to find friends and allies with whom to share.”

At TimeRepublik, we are very interested in partnering with other local governments and community organizations to help create timebanks. Reach out today.