We have in the Netherlands in the bigger cities some sort of project which is alike and we call it Transition town. The idea behind it is that everyone has a skill that someone doesn't have e.g. hairdressing which you can trade. What happens is that you will get points (e.g. 12 points for hairdressing someones hair) when you provide your service to someone. These points can be used for another service such as lending someones car for an hour (e.g. 15 points) or a painter (e.g. 10 points). This allows everyone especially in economic crisis to still go to the hairdresser or getting a babysitter for one hour in the week without worrying about the money. Another thing we have in this community are 'tradeshops'. You bring stuff such as books, clothes, furniture to a shop and you will get points for this which you can again spend on things in the shop. It is currently so popular in Amsterdam that we have trade evenings for clothes only in which women come together and 'shop' total new outfits together. It is also nice to see someone being happy with the one dress that didn't look that nice on you and looks absolutely great on this other person.

Gabrielle--that's an amazing concept that I think is highly empowering for those that lack disposable income. Having a way to share skills and gain other services/commodities at the local level is what a local currency is all about. Of course, you don't need a paper currency, may a point system that's used in NL is more effective? It would be interesting to see how we might compare.

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