This is a CTP of initiative: Spice (UK)
The WICC had been established to design, test and evaluate the potential of complementary currencies, including time exchange, in addressing the loss of community cohesion following de-industrialisation, especially in the wake of mine closures in Welsh Valley communities where cohesion had been strongly linked to the shared economic and social experience of belonging to a mining community. A test case for time banking was established in Blaengarw in 2006 – the Blaengarw Time Centre.
Blaengarw was typical of many Welsh mining towns and villages, which were affected by economic decline and loss of a sense of purpose after the closure of the mines upon which the economic and social life of the town had been built. Closure of the mines had resulted not only in the loss of economic activity but a breakdown of the formerly tightknit community. In common with other former mining towns and villages in the Welsh Valleys, pit closure was accompanied by loss of community cohesion and emerging social divisions.
The WICC approached the Creation Development Trust with a view to establishing a time bank to support community strengthening in Blaengarw. The Blaengarw Time Centre was founded in 2006 and was located in the old working men’s hall. The two organisations jointly ran the time bank in close collaboration with the Creation Development Trust’s other activities.
“There was this eureka moment, because the workmen’s hall had access to various pots of money and grants to put on cultural activities and events in its four walls. Then we suddenly realized that we could start running the time based currency as entry into these events, so you could go and see a musical or you could go and see a play and you could either pay in cash or you could pay in time.” This was a breakthrough because it meant that spending of time credits earned through a time bank did not have to be limited to the services offered by other members. In addition, time credits could be used as an alternative to regular money to pay for access to events that had been organised by external organisations. This sparked the idea that what had happened in Blaengarw by chance might be intentionally developed as a way to make time banking more appealing and useful to time bank members.
In contrast to the purist timebanking model of person-to-person exchange, the Blaengarw Time Centre began to develop and operate on a different model. A first change from the purist timebanking model of person-to-person exchange was the idea that community-based organisations could bring members of the community together to identify and prioritise community needs that could be met by collective action by community members. Community organisations could then organise group activities to meet community needs and offer opportunities to time bank members to contribute time and earn time credits for community service. Time credits could then be earned by individuals through contributing to group activities that positively contribute to the overall community.
This new model of time exchange depended, however, on another breakthrough; finding a way through which time credits could be spent. This was the breakthrough represented by the willingness of the Creation Development Trust to accept time credits as an alternative to money payment for entry to their events. The solution to the question of how time credits might be spent marks the emergence of a new model of time exchange, which has become branded under the name Spice.
Among the first organizations that were successfully approached about their willingness to offer their spare capacities as rewards was the local rugby club of Blaengarw. It was a beneficiary of organised volunteering activities through which individuals in the community were earning time credits. It routinely organised rugby club social events, such as discos, for which an entry fee was charged. The rugby club expressed willingness to accept time credits as an alternative to money to pay for entry to its discos.
What began as the Blaengarw time bank experiment emerged to become a successful experiment with a variant form of time exchange. The emergent new form of time exchange provided new opportunities for individuals and the community of Blaengarw. The emergent new form of time exchange helped to improve the situation in terms of socio-economic and interpersonal relationships. In only 18 months of operation, the Time Centre grew to have 1,200 members, representing a substantial share (around 30%)of the inhabitants of Blaengarw. It became the inspiration for the creation of a new organisation, Spice, which was established intentionally to develop, promote and upscale the new model and to transfer it to other locations. Accordingly, Spice has promoted its model not only in Wales, but also in England.
The CTP and successful implementation of the timebanking project was co-produced by several actors. Decisive contributions were brought in by the Creation Development Trust. The Working Men’s Hall provides premises for Trust-organised community facilities and activities, such as a sculpture studio or the Creation studio. From 2006, the Creation Development Trust became the operational partner of WICC. When the WICC project ended, two new organisations were created to carry on from its work and achievements: Timebanking Wales and Spice.
“The Trust’s most innovative achievement is the Blaengarw Time Centre. By volunteering for activities like running classes, planting in the local community, or working as Street Ambassadors to look after local streets and their residents members earn credits which can be used to ‘pay’ to take part in other community activities. When the scheme was extended to offer younger people a way to earn credits for activities like judo, cheerleading and social events, the police reported a 17% reduction in anti-social behaviour”.
The prevailing poor economic and social conditions provided important contextual framing in the emergence of Spice. The commitment of local people was also important, since their motivation influenced the overall participation rate, which helped make the experiment a success and drew attention to the initiative. An important individual was David Pugh. “He was an amazing guy, incredibly warm, incredibly dedicated, and passionate who had huge social capital in that community. There was a huge degree of trust in him and what he would ask of people. He had that x-factor.”
The engagement of local people contributed to a self-reinforcing positive feedback loop with success creating the basis for further success. With continuing and growing levels of community engagement what were originally planned as one-time social events to revitalize social activity in Blaengarw have become regular events. The annual carnival that had once been an important feature in the community calendar while the pits were open and part of local identity was revived in 2007 and has been held each year since then.
The founding of the Creation Development Trust in 2000 was an enabling factor, as the WICC and the Trust worked in partnership to experiment with time based currencies. The Trust had local presence and the use of the Working Men’s Hall. It had access to financial resources and a degree of flexibility in using these that enabled it to develop innovative spending models in terms of partnering with other social organizations. This opened possibilities to tap into the spare capacity of other organizations.
The establishment of WICC in 2003 was crucial in the establishment of Blaengarw Time Centre. The establishment of WICC was backed by practitioners and by charitable and academic organizations keen to see trials and experiments with community currencies in local settings.
The Time Centre and its operations have led to the development of a new form of time-based exchange. The new mechanism of time credits that was developed first at Blaengarw Time Centre was successful there in helping to re-build the local community and in enabling the local community to help itself address community needs. The experiments were under close scrutiny and it was possible to monitor the success of the mechanism developed in Blaengarw. In turn this enabled the spotlight to be focused on Blaengarw and the new mechanism of time exchange developed there, making this a potential model for replication and upscaling.
When the WICC project ended the successes achieved during the project made it possible to establish new institutions to carry the work forward. Two new organisations were formed in 2008: Timebanking Wales and Spice. The further development and promotion of the new time exchange mechanism pioneered in Blaengarw was the rationale for one of these. The new mechanism and the organisation mandated to promote it were both branded ‘Spice’. Since then Spice has increasingly gained attention and has expanded across Wales and into England. The time exchange model at its core is different from conventional timebanking. It downplays the element of reciprocity that defines person-to-person timebanking but offers a form of incentivised volunteering that is able to mobilise and organise individuals within communities in support of group activities that benefit their own communities. Spice and conventional Timebanking offer different but complementary models.
The establishment of the Time Centre Blaengarw was not contested. The key developments at Blaengarw emerged partly from the designed interventions of WICC and partly through local innovations that were not planned as such, but represented variations on the original timebanking model. They became the starting point of a new time credit model that is now used widely across Wales and England.
It was anticipated that the WICC would implement experimental projects in local areas of Wales after starting its operation in 2003. A suitable setting for one such experiment was found in Blaengarw where the Creation Development Trust was already operating to address economic deprivation and challenges of social cohesion. However, it was not anticipated that the project would achieve such levels of success in terms of local engagement (ca. 30% of the 4000 inhabitants).
The key innovations, particularly in regards to tapping into the spare capacities of organizations, emerged through local efforts to make the time banking mechanism relevant to local conditions and contexts. There was no specific intention or component of deliberate design in the emergence of the key innovations, but there was a conscious effort to study and monitor the Time Centre and to understand factors in its performance. While it was not anticipated that this would finally lead to a new model of time exchange and to the development of a nationwide spend network, it was always intended that the experience in Blaengarw should be studied. The extent and significance of the studying and learning achieved from it was not foreseen.
Firstly, a purist model of timebanking was to be implemented. However, adaptations were made to the model in the local context and these proved to be successful and potentially generalizable. The new time based exchange model was found to be successful in helping to re-invigorate local community activity and improve interpersonal relationships. It supported the community in meeting community needs collectively despite economic deprivation.
The Blaengarw Time Centre was developed within the context of the WICC project, which was an intentional exploration of the scope and potential of community currencies to support self-help efforts within local communities. The adaptations were therefore studied from the perspective of learning potentially transferable lessons.
It was found that the initial success of the experiment was a factor in its further success, since local actors realised that they had stumbled across a novel adaptation and that this could be a significant breakthrough. The engagement of popular and motivating actors within the community contributed significantly to the realization of the project.
“There was this realization that this could be something special actually. The growth of that Time Bank was astonishing and it went to about 1200 members in the space of about 18 months; over one-third of the entire population of the village. And that was galvanized and driven by some very key individuals, very connected, local people who had been in that community for years, knew everyone, knew what makes them tick and knew how to bring people on board.”
Learning from the Blaengarw project was central to the establishment of Spice both as a new model of time exchange and as a dedicated organisation devoted to developing and promoting the new model. This is a continuing work-in-progress and is being achieved by the Spice organisation building supporting networking infrastructure, including the spend network of partner organisations and the earning network of social organisations, as well as continuing with demonstration projects. In turn, monitoring and evaluation are central activities of the Spice organisation in its own continuing development.
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