Mutual Aid Networks

Mutual Aid Networks build local economies that create means for people to do the work they want to while building community wealth. The collaborative economic systems–timebanking, price-based mutual credit, shared resources, and cooperative savings and lending pools–are currently being used successfully as separate strategies around the world. By bringing these forms of community sharing and exchange into a comprehensive, complementary system, Dane County TimeBank has created a scalable model that is being used to transform communities to be economically and socially resilient. We will work with six demonstration sites to bring these front-edge economic innovations to communities across the world. The MainMAN meta-cooperative that links the pilots together will collectively create comprehensive budgeting tools that track all forms of capital–timebank hours, mutual credit, etc.-and create means for people to commission work from each other utilizing shared templates and facilitati
Categoría de tu proyecto
Educación colaborativa
Cómo se diferencia tu producto o servicio de lo existente en el mercado?
Mutual Aid Networks are a new form of cooperative that employs collaborative economic strategies – including timebanking, price-based mutual credit, shared resources, and cooperative savings and lending pools – in a synergistic way. These economic strategies are currently being used successfully around the world. Our system moves one step further by bringing them together into a comprehensive, complementary economic system that will configure the economy to work for people, instead of people working for the economy. The cooperative will employ these different economic strategies to generate, steward, and allocate resources toward the group’s agreed-upon goals. This structure will allow the strengths for each strategy to shine while also filling in the gaps for each individual strategy's weaknesses. Synergies within the Mutual Aid Network will enable new-found effectiveness in channeling resources where they are needed within a community.
Describe el impacto social que genera tu solución
Mutual Aid Networks (MANs) create community-based, collaborative economic platforms, strategies, and tools that provide robust benefits and resources needed by struggling communities for more sustainable, just, and resilient economic health. With easy-to-use, community-based legal structures and organizational processes, MANs empower cash-poor communities to build their wealth and quality of life. With these structures in place, pilot sites will fund and support a variety of aims, such as better healthcare, increased food security, increased economic prosperity through creation and support of local business and entrepreneurship, and increased security with disaster preparedness/support networks.
Descripción breve de la sustentabilidad económica de tu proyecto
This system of tools will create mechanisms for people to be able to invest money, time, and other resources directly into their communities. Instead of being dependent on the scarcity of money for economic exchange, this system creates other methods of exchange for much needed work that may or may not be valued by the market economy. The use of timebank hours, mutual credit, shared resources, and community savings and lending pools creates abundance for people to exchange time, resources, and talents without the need for a bank or credit card company. One type of community savings and lending pool will be funded by having investors refinance community debt – credit card debt, student loan debt, etc. - at a lower interest rate than banks or credit card companies enabling the interest to grow the community savings and lending pool as well as providing some profit to investors. This will ensure that the interest also stays within and benefits the community as well. This interest will be one source of funding for the administration of the Mutual Aid Network. The other forms of exchange will also be used to sustain the cooperative.
¿Cómo es la escala de tu proyecto?¿Zonal, regional, nacional o globlal? ¿Por qué?
Mutual Aid Networks are scalable and can be created by any group of people globally who hold shared values and a common purpose that fits with the agreed-upon core principles of Mutual Aid Networks. Communities could form MANs for: • Providing healthcare and wellness within the community • Increasing energy conservation and renewable energy production • Increasing economic prosperity by creation and support of local businesses and enterprise • Creating disaster preparedness networks by risk areas or geographic region • Creating art incubators At the individual level, we will create means for people to redesign their work lives. The tools we are creating will help enable people to design how they use their time not only to provide services and meet their financial needs, but also to meet their needs for creative expression via music, art, etc., to be involved and help their community, and to be continuing life-long learners.
¿En qué etapa se encuentra tu proyecto?
Piloto
¿Tu emprendimiento se encuentra constituído en algún país?¿Cuál?
Madison, WI, USA
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