Delivery Organisation: Timebanking UK
Location: Liverpool
Contact details
Name: Kerri Tyler
Organisation: Timebanking UK
Tel: 01453 350879
Email: kerri@timebanking.org
Our Time is a timebanking project run by Richmond Fellowship and Timebanking UK which aims to tackle the social isolation faced by adults in Liverpool who live with mental health problems.
The project supports individuals to engage with their local community, access services and rebuild their confidence through timebanking.
Our Time creates opportunities for people with mental health problems to exchange their skills and time, improving their mental health by incorporating the five ways to wellbeing: connecting, giving, learning, taking notice and being active.
Project Impact & Outcomes
- Building confidence: As people take part in timebanking activities, they begin to develop more confidence in their abilities, and to see more value in the skills they have to share. One time bank member reports: “I have started to feel useful again and more positive about the skills I have to offer. I look forward to developing connections and friendships.”
- Promoting inclusion: The Richmond Fellowship team coordinating the time bank work with new members to reduce barriers to inclusion. Where they are able to safely, they support people to access and use IT; they help people to reframe their ideas about what they can and cannot do; and they facilitate participation in the activities of the time bank. An Our Time member says:“We all need to feel useful – and it’s very easy to lose that when you have a mental health problem.”
- Encouraging creativity: Many members of the time bank have not explored creative ways of expressing themselves and the time bank enables them to access various forms of creativity such as writing poetry and painting.
- Connecting people with each other: Joining the time bank gives people a meaningful way to connect with each other in their own time and on their own terms. It enables people to organise themselves and take control of the way they spend their time positively. They report finding pleasure in making their own choices about how to spend their time, before and after the time exchanges take place: “Our Time is a great service! I love getting involved and helping people and have met some really nice people through timebanking.”
- Improving mental health: Members of the time bank report feeling happier and enjoying improved mental health as a result of arranging and taking part in time exchanges with others: “Becoming part of the Our Time family has given me a sense of purpose again! I’m excited for the future and I haven’t been excited about anything for a very long time! They also understand that sometimes I may not feel up to joining in and never put me under any pressure to do so.”
Related resources
