KENT, Ohio — Using time as a currency is an idea created by the Kent Community Time Bank, where every hour you spend doing for someone else earns you a time credit.

For example, if you spend one hour shoveling someone’s driveway, you will receive a one hour time credit.

"It really evens the playing field it blurs the lines between the haves and the have nots. We are all one community. We all rely on each-other. We all have different strengths and weaknesses, and we can count on each other," said Heather Walts, the president of the Kent Community Time Bank. 

Waltz explained that navigating the time bank is as easy as logging into an app.

“The Time Bank software tracks our interactions like a bank account would, and instead of exchanging our talents and skills for cash or things like that, we are exchanging it for time.”

There are community time banks throughout the entire world, but Heidi Weisel, the treasurer of the Kent Community Time Bank, explains that Kent's ranks as one of the best.

"The Kent Community Time Bank is the second in the world in time transactions, and I believe that the number is somewhere around 89,000 since we first began. On an average, we do about 40 hours a day of transactions.”

The possibilities with the time bank are limitless. The Kent Community has nearly 1,000 diverse members that range from coffee shop owners to lawyers and even massage therapists.

“I’m going to pay for this coffee from Scribbles (a coffee shop) with my time credits, and I have paid people to mow my grass with time credits, and we have a member in the Time Bank who actually got a car and now pays part of her rent in time credits,” said Weisel.

If you are interested in finding a time bank near you, Weisel suggests checking Facebook first.