Back in 2002, I started working with community currencies and timebanking as a way to create greater equality in our communities. I was the CEO of a development trust that managed a theatre and community centre at the time and we started to offer our underutilised capacity to volunteers. One hour in the theatre could be paid for with one hour of helping in the community. People really loved this concept and within 6 weeks we had 120 volunteers and we started to organise our community differently. We won many awards for this work because we grew the largest volunteer network in Europe if not globally.
In 2013, recognising the limitations of paper-based currencies and that we really could empower people in communities, I started to develop Hourcoin which is a digital currency and volunteer management platform that takes underutilised assets and wasted hours in the community and turns them into rewards and recognition for our wonderful volunteers. This helps to remove the barrier for those people who could benefit from volunteering but can't afford to do so and helps to boost the family budget of families. For others, it's just great fun and they love the challenge.
One of the great things about the platform and the currency is that it is not owned by us, it is in the full control of the voluntary organisations that work in the community that can increase their social impact and create greater equity.
We are now working on our first proof of concept project which is taking place in RCT. If you want to find out more, please get in touch for a chat.
You can find out more about Hourcoin via this link https://hourcoin.co.uk
Back in 2002, I started working with community currencies and timebanking as a way to create greater equality in our communities. I was the CEO of a development trust that managed a theatre and community centre at the time and we started to offer our underutilised capacity to volunteers. One hour in the theatre could be paid for with one hour of helping in the community. People really loved this concept and within 6 weeks we had 120 volunteers and we started to organise our...
