Wednesday 18 July 2018

Timebanking in the Vale


On the 16th of July we had our monthly meeting.  To begin with we met Mark Ellis, the Community Investment and Involvement Officer for the Council.  We took part in a workshop to learn more about the Vale Homes timebanking scheme, a scheme which rewards council tenants for volunteering in their community.  The scheme provides lots of opportunities for people of all ages to volunteer, develop skills and build confidence.  It rewards volunteers with timebanking credits, a credit looks like paper money and can be used to participate in activities across the Vale and the UK for free!! Some examples include painting balling in Cowbridge, watching a Barry Town United football game, Coconuts play centre and even Madam Tussauds in London.  Hopefully the scheme will be open to all people in the Vale in the future and it's something we definitely think more young people should get involved in and be rewarded for all the volunteering they do!

We also had a guest from Cardiff City Kicks Foundation, Zac.  Zac is hoping to set up a similar youth cabinet style project for his organisation.  Zac would like to bring together young people from the Premier Kicks programmes across South Wales, including Barry & Llantwit Major.  The idea is young people would have the chance to share any issues they're facing in their local communities, be involved in designing programmes, recruiting new staff and getting involved in the funding processes of the organisation.  We were able to give Zac lots of tips and advice on setting up a new group - we hope we were helpful!