Local Woman’s Timebanking Platform Fosters Community Building

When Christina Ellis gets involved in a project – personally and professionally – she always takes a deep dive.

This is why she is so enthusiastic about the TimeRepublik platform that is located in her community of Riverside, California, located near the town of Banning.

It has been eight years since Ellis became an active member of the unique global timebanking platform, and she encourages others to sign up for the first purpose-driven social network to expand their community.

The appeal was simple: “My husband had lost his job, so money was tight," Ellis explains, "but time was something that I had to give."

This is how it works. TimeRepublik offers the U.S. and global platform for users to provide services in exchange for time coins that can be used to purchase other services in the network.

Currently, there are more than 100,000 members in 100 countries, and this number continues to grow as people of all ages and backgrounds find out about it.

Timebanking Comes to California Towns

The latest development, as the network expands in the U.S. is for inspired users, such as Ellis, to encourage her friends and neighbors in Riverside to join the local TimeRepublik community. The group is for those who live, work, or spend time in Riverside.

“I am extremely excited about this,” Ellis recently explains. “A few months ago, I started to share my ideas about a local timebank on NextDoor, and it appears to be catching on.”

Ellis wants people to try, use, and appreciate the platform, in the way that she does, and see how it adds value to her life.

“I would love for people to see the possible offers and requests in our local area,” she explains, “and for certain tasks and offers, if people are comfortable with it, then they could consider meeting in person.”

Visionaries Gabriele Donati and Karim Varini Are Changing the World

The brainchild of visionary entrepreneurs Gabriele Donati and his longtime friend Karim Varini, TimeRepublik took the idea of an alternative online monetary system and turned it into a global phenomenon.

They are intensely proud that the projects available on the platform attract such a positive user base, and that members are so much more eager to help one another than to make demands.

In their welcome email, Donati and Varini say that they hope new users are “prepared to discover how much relationships improve when they are beyond money…This is a new kind of economy fueled by trust. It is a place to build networks and relationships and to help you accomplish whatever you need.”

“The ultimate goal of this platform is to create relationships that lead to trust,” says Donati, “because once you reach that level of trust, the spectrum of possibilities becomes endless, and you become part of my family.”

He adds, “It’s about things that make a genuine difference in people’s lives. It’s been proven that what makes us happy is to help someone else, and this is something that you cannot buy.”

Currently, skills being sought on the platform include the following diverse requests, such as the best place to purchase a vintage record player, helping a user practice his French skills, recipes for keto smoothies, help to collect stamps, ukulele lessons., and assistance with a logo for a large start-up.

Riverside Welcomes Exciting New Timebanking Opportunity

Over the past eight years, the patent paralegal residing in Riverside, California, has used her proofreading skills to review websites and articles for TimeRepublik members in Mexico, France, and Italy. Ellis has also critiqued resumes for other members.

In fact, for several years she has been working as an editor for the English language section of an Italian-based Facebook page run by 34-year-old Simone; an experience she never would have had without the timebanking platform. Simone runs a website called Voluntouring.org, which helps foster volunteering and meaningful travel around the world.

For Simone, timebanking and TimeRepublik make perfect sense, especially because it is difficult for so many people to think “outside of the box. Bartering our time as an alternative to monetary exchange can be met by a lot of skepticism, and I can partially understand that.”

He adds, “However, it's definitely an interesting social experiment.” It's not only a way for people to exchange services or products without using money but also a way to create an alternative community and a way to better connect and relate with the people we exchange goods and services with.”

Simone is happy to recommend TimeRepublik to friends and family. He hopes that more people will join the platform and make it possible “to exchange physical services like gardening, hospitality, forest cleaning, wall painting, furniture building, etc.”

He cites, for example, his neighbor could ask him me to mow their lawn, while, “They can give me time credits in exchange, or bake some delicious cakes. It's a bit like a bartering system but it tends to reinforce a community. This is not always possible with a monetary exchange.”

He recommends that everyone give TimeRepublik a try. “I wish TimeRepublik was as famous as other social media platforms. I like to think how different could the world be if instead of spending our time gossiping on social networks, we would focus more on helping one another in exchange for time credits.”

Some time ago, Simone published an announcement on TimeRepublik that he was looking for an English speaker to proofread his Facebook page. He and Ellis have never met, but he considers her to be a “nice and kind” woman.

He said that he is appreciative of Ellis’s help and the platform. “Our world is full of people with skills, passion, and... time,” he explains. “Why not exchange our skills for a different kind of "credit" which is basically people's time?”

This ongoing work relationship has been mutually beneficial. “I developed ongoing relationships, and work consistently to help Simone by reviewing his social media posts in exchange for time credits,” she says.

Ellis said she has amassed a lot of time credits, but not spent many of them, because she is seeking local services, which is why starting the Riverside community is so important to her.

Unlike bartering where there has to be an exchange, like pet sitting or helping to start a garden, timebanking allows a greater variety of skills and services from a larger pool of users. So, someone could teach you how to make the perfect pasta, while you could teach someone else how to start a vegetable garden.

"I am working to launch a community timebank in Riverside," Ellis adds. "TimeRepublik has allowed me to continue transacting on this unique and exciting platform, no matter where I live, and I greatly appreciate the relationships and community building.”

Sign up for the Riverside community at: https://timerepublik.com/communities/66

Sign up for TimeRepublik