| Summary: | 碩士 === 銘傳大學 === 公共事務學系碩士在職專班 === 99 === Time bank is a system to use one’s knowledge and labor to serve in exchange for service hours. He or she then makes requests for help from others and pay by the service hours he or she earned before. The purpose is to achieve the goal of helping others, getting help, and helping each other. The concept of “time bank” goes beyond traditional trading with entity, money, or currency. By participating in a time bank system, everyone can contribute regardless their ages, physical abilities, and social classes. No one will be considered disadvantaged and can receive help from others only. As a result, social and interpersonal interaction and trust will be enhanced to decrease the aloofness and alienation in modern society.
Time bank system has been implemented for more than 30 years in other countries. It has also been implemented for more than 10 years in Taiwan. However, in Taiwan, the time bank system has often been established and implemented by non-profit organizations, and participants are recruited from non-profit organizations’ volunteers. It is often found that participants only deposit their service hours but not to withdraw them. In other words, they only provide help to others but not to ask for help. When the implementation of time bank system no longer can foster people to help each other, the key purpose of implementing time bank system is lost. Hwa Yun New Town Spending Money Group, Taipei Yang Ban Pang, Taichung He Pu Plantation, and New Taipei City Social Welfare Bureau have all continuously tried to instituting and improving the system in the past few years. However, the results remain to be seen. This research employed qualitative in-depth interviews, quantitative questionnaire, and secondary data analysis to better understand Taiwan’s experience of implementing Time bank system. This research further conducts SWOT analysis to better understand Taiwan’s strategic environment of implementing Time bank system, and makes recommendations based on these findings.
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