Sheridan Neighborhood · Northeast Minneapolis
An hour of your help is worth an hour of anyone else's.
We're starting a time bank for neighbors in Sheridan and nearby Northeast Minneapolis -- a way to trade help, not money. Fix a bike, get a ride. Weed a garden, learn to bake bread. Every hour counts the same, no matter what the task.
What's a time bank, actually?
A time bank is a way for a community to trade services using time instead of money. You help a neighbor for an hour -- say, raking leaves, watching a kid for an afternoon, or fixing a leaky faucet -- and you earn one time credit. You can spend that credit on an hour of help from anyone else in the network: piano lessons, a ride to the airport, help writing a resume, whatever you need.
One hour always equals one credit, no matter whose hour it is or what the task was. A lawyer's hour and a teenager's hour are worth exactly the same. That's the whole idea: everyone's time, and everyone's ability to contribute, is treated as equally valuable.
It's not bartering (you don't need to find someone who wants exactly what you're offering), and it's not charity (everyone gives and everyone receives). It's a practical way for a neighborhood to take care of itself, especially the parts of daily life that are hard to afford but easy to help each other with.
Why join now, before anything's built
This time bank doesn't exist yet -- and that's exactly why this is the moment to get in. Every real time bank starts the same way: a small group of neighbors who show up early, help set the tone, and become the first people others turn to and copy. We're calling that group the founding kitchen cabinet -- not a formal board, just the neighbors willing to be first.
Founding members get a real say in how this works for Sheridan specifically: what kinds of help matter most here, how we welcome new neighbors in, how we handle the awkward first ask. You don't need any special skill to join the kitchen cabinet -- you need to be willing to trade an hour here and there, and to help a brand-new thing feel normal.
If you've got five hours a month and you like your neighbors, that's enough.
What this page is (and isn't)
To be straightforward about it: this page is not the time bank. The actual system that tracks everyone's hours -- the real ledger, the member directory, the request-and-offer board -- runs on hOurworld.org, an established platform used by time banks all over the country. Northeast Minneapolis Time Bank is approved and live there -- you can apply for a real account right now.
Applications go through a short review (usually just making sure you're a real neighbor, not a bot) before you get full access to the ledger and the request-and-offer board. Click Join Now below to start that application directly.
If you'd rather just say hi first, the form further down still works too -- it goes straight to a real neighbor (not a bot), and we'll help you get set up.
Not ready to apply yet? Say hi first
This isn't the real application -- it goes straight to a real neighbor, not a bot, so we can answer questions and help you get set up when you're ready. If you already know you want in, use the Join Now button above instead.
Know a neighbor who'd be into this?
Share this page in the Sheridan Neighborhood Organization group, on Nextdoor, or in a Buy Nothing group -- the whole idea only works if enough neighbors know about it. The more founding members we have on day one, the more useful the time bank is for everyone from the start.
Organized by a Sheridan neighbor. Questions? elliottsaxton@gmail.com