Doing it Together, Community Currencies for participation in civil society and local economy

Thousands of community currencies (CC) are active all over the world. Some work with money or points, others work with time or reciprocal services as currency. Sometimes local government and civil society organisations are involved. These currencies are the subject of this conference.

Implementation-experts, local politicians, innovative leaders and leading scientists will elaborate on a variety of community currencies from all over the world: why choose a CC as instrument, what choices were made and what pitfalls where avoided, how does it work in real life and most of all: what are the measurable effects?

Doing it Together (SamenDoen) is organised as a part of the European Social Innovation Week in Tilburg NL.

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Program of the conference

The conference will be English and Dutch spoken. Download the programme in English or in Dutch to see which parts are in your language.

Op de conferentie wordt zowel Nederlands als Engels gesproken. Download het programma hieronder om te zien welke delen in uw taal beschikbaar zijn.

• Download the full program with speakers and information in English here
• Download het hele programma met sprekers en informatie hier

09:00 Registration Change your ticket for our local currency

09:45 Opening Welcome and introduction to all

10:00 Talkshow 1 Rewarding participation in our communities, an introduction

11:00 Workshops 1, Why? International examples

• Preventing criminal careers - Youth Courts in the USA
• Co-production with local governments and citizens - Spice UK
• Supporting entrepreneurs in underserved neighborhoods - Brixton Pound
• Integral approach, municipal policies - SamenDoen, Netherlands (Dutch)
• Participation in community currencies in the Netherlands and Belgium - Thomas More (Dutch)
• Co-creation PPC - Troeven, Belgium (Dutch)

12:00 Use your CC: lunch Trade our digital currency for food and drinks, participating social clubs present themselves

13:00 Talkshow 2 Implermenting policies using community currencies

14:00 Workshops 2 What's in it form me?

• Co-production - unleashing participative power in youth care
• Activation and empowering to participate - The RISE center for children daycare
• Community Currencies combatting poverty - municipality of Hilversum
• New perspectives for local entrepreneurs (Dutch)
• Quality control, measuring results - Thomas More research (Dutch)
• Livability and housing - Housing Association Stadlander and mobility-project Tholen (Dutch)
• iCare4U - Informal care and volunteering, Carecenter de Schutse and project Troeven (Dutch)

15:00 Marketplace where our participating social clubs and charities present themselves

15:30 Talkshow 3 Discussion with audience using our Interactive Word-Cloud

16:30 - 17:00 Have a drink and network in the marketplace, donate your remaining points to a charity

FAQs:

What language is used at the conference?

The plenary sessions are in English with Dutch translation

At both rounds of workshops there will be Dutch and English spoken workshops, you can choose at the conference wich one you would like to attend. The full program with speakers and language information can be downloaded.

How do I get to the conference?

The venue: "Koepelhal" is at walking distance from Tilburg Central Station.

How do I contact the organiser?

Mail to: samendoen@habipro.nl

Do I need to show my ticket at the door?

Yes, this ticket wil be changed for a card with our digital currency. With this card you will be able to obtain your drinks and food at the conference.

Can I give my ticket to someone else?

Yes, upon showing the ticket, 1 person is allowed to enter. So keep your ticket to yourself, unless you want to send someone else in your place.

Community Currencies

Social policies in living, healthcare and wellbeing are changing rapidly. They have become major posts in local government administrations. Every municipality, housing association or care-organisation is struggling with the task to deliver more services and meet their responsibilities with less resources. Maintaining a healthy climate for local entrepreneurs, ensuring demand for workforce and a livable community proves to be a challenge.

Goals can only be achieved in close cooperation with civil society organisations. The greatest challenge however lies in involving the local entrepreneurs, shop and of course the citizens themselves as co-creators and co-deliverers of services to each other, thus reducing the demand for public services from their local government.

Community currencies are instruments to help generate quick, relatively cheap positive effects in civil society. In the “Doing it Together” model CC make it easy for citizens to reward each other with points for mutual services rendered. Civil society organisations use the currency to reward positive behaviour, for example for providing informal care or volunteer work, or for being involved in their local community, keeping their neighbourhood a livable place to be. It becomes a tool to change behaviour in a positive way, with longer lasting effect. They help to cut costs and to achieve more effect with less budget.

“Doing it Together” in Tholen and Bergen op Zoom

The municipality, citizens, shopkeepers and civil society organisations of Tholen and Bergen op Zoom have started a strong initiative, using a digital Community Currency to promote civil participation and cohesion and strengthening their local economy. The currency is used for rewarding positive behaviour, as loyalty scheme for buying local shops and as a new currency for projects with social, cultural and sports clubs. Volunteers and informal carers are rewarded in this currency.

What are the results?

• Encouraging informal services to family, neighbours and the neighborhood and providing informal and organised voluntary work, informal care and respite care. Getting involved in this informal networks provides new chances for meaningful social relationships between people. Vulnerable people become part of greater networks, reducing chances of loneliness and depression.
• Activation of people by enlarging their network, building their skill-set, improving their self-esteem, providing a meaningful pass-time and improving their economic means with the points they can spend in local shops.
• Improved livability and safety in neighbourhoods by encouraging and enabling citizens to take responsibility in addressing their social challenges.
• Improving public health, by stimulating citizens to eat healthier food and live an active life.
• Fighting poverty in a new and non-stigmatizing way by creating possibilities to increase income for local spending, creating networking connections between working and unemployed resulting in a stronger social cohesion between income groups.
• Supporting local shops and entrepreneurs by providing a new marketing channel and a branding tool for the city or region.

How does it work?

• Civil organisations reward citizens with points in their account, for delivering specific services or showing desired behaviour towards these organisations, towards their fellow citizens or neighbourhood. Examples are supporting elderly people, cleaning up the street, taking care of public gardens, paying their rent on time, separating waste streams, etc.
• Shopkeepers donate loyalty points in the CC to their local customers as a percentage of every Euro spent in their shop. The loyalty points can be spent with their next purchase or they can be used to reward other citizens.
• Citizens reward each other with their community currency points for services to each other or informal care. It helps to create strong bonds self-efficacy and social cohesion and inclusion.
• Credits in the account can also be redeemed at participating local shops and organisations.

This event is supported by the European Union Programme for Employment and Social Solidarity PROGRESS (2007-2013)

Lead partner for this project is the municipality of Tholen, Netherlands.