Where is the time bank located? Who is it for?

This time bank is rooted in Jackson Heights, Queens, and currently focused on Jackson Heights and surrounding neighborhoods. But if you live in a different area, we are already thinking about you and exploring how to design our system to Work for you. Please sign up below and stay in touch.

Part of the reason is simple: the people who started and are organizing the project live here. But we also decided for now to stick to the Jackson Heights area — versus broadening across Queens — because time banking works best under these circumstances:

• When exchanges are geographically practical. Many exchanges are small, everyday forms of support, like running errands. These kinds of exchanges become more likely when people live close enough that helping doesn’t require a long train ride.

• When organizers can physically meet regularly. Time banks require ongoing coordination, trust-building, onboarding, conflict support, and relationship maintenance. That is much more manageable at a neighborhood scale, where organizers and members are more likely to cross paths in daily life.

Queens is enormous geographically even though neighborhoods may seem adjacent on a map. A system spread too widely can easily become fragmented, with fewer exchanges, weaker relationships, and more organizer strain. In Jackson Heights alone, there are roughly 100,000 people in about a square mile!