Texas Eldercare Volunteer Corps Resource Center and Volunteer Service Credit Program.

摘要

Service credit volunteerism is an alternative economic system based on hours of volunteer service rather than dollars. Volunteers in such a project usually live close to each other. City neighborhoods and small communities are typical sites. The participants do services for each other and, in the process, earn volunteer service credits (also called Time Dollars) at the rate of one for each hour worked. These credits are deposited into individual accounts and can be withdrawn at any time to purchase services from anyone else who has agreed in advance to accept volunteer service credits as currency. Service credit systems give real buying power to people who have little ability to earn 'regular' money: those with low incomes, physical disabilities or insufficient time or opportunity to work full-time. They have special appeal to seniors, many of whom attach a stigma to the idea of accepting any kind of public assistance. Almost anyone, regardless of age or disability status, can find worthwhile work to do in a volunteer service credit system and therby earn Time Dollars to pay for help they need.