Providing a skills exchange network for people with disabilities and low incomes
Abstract
For more than 200 people in and around Ann Arbor, Michigan, help with tasks ranging from home repair to transportation is merely a phone call away. Members of the Washtenaw Talent Exchange are people with disabilities who register their requests with one of four AmeriCorps*VISTA members running the year-old program, an initiative of the Ann Arbor Center for Independent Living. This program was highlighted in the National Service News , July 29, 2004, Issue No. 204, published by the Corporation for National and Community Service.
Issue
Providing services and reducing social isolation for people living with disabilities and low incomes is not just a function of state and federal social services, but of the communities in which they live. Developing closer communities and recreating a sense of neighborhood through an exchange of services can be empowering both individually and collectively.
Action
Members of the Washtenaw Talent Exchange (WTE) Network are people with disabilities who register their requests with one of four AmeriCorps*VISTA members (who are also people with disabilities) running the program, an initiative of the Ann Arbor Center for Independent Living. Effective practices include:
- As individuals join the Washtenaw Talent Exchange Network, they indicate what skills they can offer fellow members.
- AmeriCorps*VISTA members match requests for any one of about 300 tasks with the skills offered by other members.
- WTE participants can exchange services such as:
- Escorting people on errands and appointments
- Shopping or doing errands
- Doing simple housework, minor home repairs, or gardening
- Giving time off to people caring for relatives
- Counseling people in need
- Helping out with child care and babysitting
- Telephoning people who are lonely
- Visiting people at home or in the hospital
- Letter writing and help with filling out forms
- Sharing skills in music, woodworking, fitness, and computers
- Each member who performs a task receives one service credit, called a Time Dollar, for every hour spent in completing the assignment. With that credit, members of the WTE can "buy" an hour of a particular service that they need.
- Members of the WTE can also choose to give their credits away — after providing a service for a person in need, they can then pass on their service credits to someone else to enable them to purchase a service they need.
- WTE members input data on each Exchange member's skills, and compile a monthly newsletter on the project.
- Additionally, WTE members conduct monthly social events that typically attract 50 to 75 people.
Context
Established in 2003 by Edward Wollmann, the AmeriCorps*VISTA supervisor of the Ann Arbor Center for Independent Living, the Washtenaw Talent Exchange Network is based on a service exchange concept called Time Dollars, which has been operating successfully in over 200 Time Dollar Programs in the USA for 15 years. Time Dollars operates through a diverse range of projects in numerous states, and with people of all ages participating.
Ann Arbor Center for Independent Living (AACIL) assists people with disabilities and their families in living full and productive lives. The Center's mission is to assure the equality of opportunity, full participation, independent living, and economic self-sufficiency of people with disabilities in the community. Centers for Independent Living, unlike traditional agencies, are staffed and operated mainly by people with disabilities, for people with disabilities. AACIL was established in 1976, the fourth Center for Independent Living created in the United States. There are now over 600 of these kinds of Centers worldwide.
Outcome
- Joining the Washtenaw Talent Exchange Network gives people with disabilities a chance to use their skills (and teach them to others), while receiving help in areas where they might need some assistance, or with something they might like to learn.
- The Exchange reduces the isolation that people with disabilities often experience.
- Because most participating members have limited incomes, providing different services in exchange for work done makes sound economic sense.
- The Washtenaw Talent Exchange Network helps develop reciprocal services among participants — and ultimately strengthens communities by rebuilding a sense of neighborhood.
Evidence
The Washtenaw Talent Exchange has facilitated completion of 1,750 hours of service by individual members for other members — which means that members have earned approximately 3500 hours in service credits during one year.
Posted On
August 9, 2004For More Information
Related Practices
Related sites
National Service Inclusion Project
