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itemscope itemtype="http://schema.org/ListItem"><a itemtype="http://schema.org/Thing" itemprop="item" href="https://kolanutcollab.org/about-us/" title="You Are Here" class="current "><span itemprop="name">About</span></a><meta itemprop="position" content="2"></span></div> </div> </div> </header> <div class="x-container max width offset"> <div class="x-main full" role="main"> <article id="post-49" class="post-49 page type-page status-publish hentry no-post-thumbnail"> <div class="entry-wrap"> <div class="entry-content content"> <div id="cs-content" class="cs-content"><div id="x-section-1" class="x-section" style="margin: 0px;padding: 45px 0px 15px; background-color: transparent;" ><div id="" class="x-container max width" style="margin: 0px auto;padding: 0px;" ><div class="x-column x-sm x-1-1" style="padding: 0px;" ><blockquote class="x-blockquote right-text" >Social structures and superstructures tend to adapt to changes in infrastructure.<cite class="x-cite">Richard Heinberg</cite></blockquote></div></div></div><div id="x-section-2" class="x-section" style="margin: 0px;padding: 45px 0px 15px; background-color: transparent;" ><div id="" class="x-container max width" style="margin: 0px auto;padding: 0px;" ><div class="x-column x-sm x-1-1" style="padding: 0px;" ><div id="" class="x-text cs-ta-justify" style="" ><div class="man" style="font-size: 125%;"> <p>The聽<strong>Kola Nut Collaborative (KNC)</strong>聽is a mutual support network of people engaged in聽<strong>reciprocal exchange</strong>聽of services, skills, and goods through a timebank where the currency is an hour of time for everyone. The Kola Nut Collaborative is a fiscally sponsored project of <strong><a href="https://opencollective.com/foundation">Open Collective Foundation</a></strong>.</p> <p><script src="https://opencollective.com/kolanutcollab/banner.js"></script></p> <p>Our network is strategically supported by <strong>Kola Community Solutions LLC</strong>, a social enterprise formed to develop and pilot innovative solutions to issues impacting Chicago communities employing <a href="https://movementgeneration.org/justtransition/">Just Transition</a> strategies to strengthen a citywide solidarity economy.</p> </div> </div></div></div></div><div id="x-section-3" class="x-section cs-ta-center" style="margin: 0px;padding: 45px 0px 15px; background-color: transparent;" ><div id="" class="x-container max width" style="margin: 0px auto;padding: 0px;" ><div class="x-column x-sm x-1-1" style="padding: 0px;" ><img decoding="async" class="x-img x-img-none" src="https://kolanutcollab.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/14377623323_23e2450ce4_z.jpg" ></div></div></div><div id="x-section-4" class="x-section cs-ta-center" style="margin: 0px;padding: 15px 0px 25px; background-color: transparent;" ><div id="" class="x-container max width" style="margin: 0px auto;padding: 0px;" ><div class="x-column x-sm x-1-2" style="padding: 0px;" ><div id="" class="x-text cs-ta-justify" style="" ><h3 style="text-align: center;">Our Mission</h3> <div class="man" style="font-size: 125%;">To promote and sustain a robust timebanking infrastructure which supports non-monetary transactions amongst individuals and organizations allowing a greater sum of the realized value of work to be retained and shared within local communities.</div> </div></div><div class="x-column x-sm x-1-2" style="padding: 0px;" ><div id="" class="x-text cs-ta-justify" style="" ><h3 style="text-align: center;">Our Vision</h3> <div class="man" style="font-size: 125%;">To make social infrastructure visible within our communities. Social infrastructure describes the invisible bonds and relationships which constitute a聽generative capital that can be accumulated and circulated through timebanking.</div> </div></div></div><div id="" class="x-container max width" style="margin: 0px auto;padding: 0px;" ><div class="x-column x-sm x-1-1" style="padding: 0px;" ><div id="" class="x-text cs-ta-justify" style="" ><h3 style="text-align: center;">Our Goals</h3> <p> </p> <div class="man" style="font-size: 125%;"> <ul> <li>To improve the quality of life of members by linking them to a high value citywide database of skills and human assets.</li> <li>To increase the accessibility of local skills pools to individuals, small businesses and community based organizations.</li> <li>To develop and sustain a complementary community currency which decreases financial pressure, reinforces the fabric of trust and creates new opportunities for engagement between stakeholders within communities.</li> <li>To develop a co-production pipeline which enables more agile delivery of human and social services by linking some recipients directly to services provided by members in their local communities.</li> </ul> </div> </div></div></div><div id="" class="x-container max width" style="margin: 0px auto;padding: 0px;" ><div class="x-column x-sm x-1-1" style="padding: 0px;" ><img decoding="async" class="x-img x-img-none" src="https://kolanutcollab.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/ico_hOurworld.png" ></div></div><div id="" class="x-container max width" style="margin: 0px auto;padding: 0px;" ><div class="x-column x-sm x-1-1" style="padding: 0px;" ><div id="" class="x-text cs-ta-justify" style="" ><h3 style="text-align: center;">Our Platform</h3> <div class="man" style="font-size: 125%;"> <p> </p> <p>Time and Talents is a timebanking platform developed by hOurworld to increase the accessibility to the practice of timebanking and reduce barriers to entry for individuals and organizations whom desire to implement time exchange in their community.</p> <p>The platform consists of a digital ledger for the recording of hour exchanges between members, a directory of available skills, assets and unmet needs in your surrounding community and search options that make it easy to locate trading partners at a reasonable distance from your home.</p> <p>In addition to the Time and Talents platform, the Kola Nut Collaborative operates an auxiliary closed Facebook group and Slack instance to provide its members with additional opportunities to communicate and connect with members throughout the network.</p> </div> </div></div></div></div><div id="x-section-5" class="x-section" style="margin: 0px;padding: 25px 0px 15px; background-color: transparent;" ><div id="" class="x-container max width" style="margin: 0px auto;padding: 0px;" ><div class="x-column x-sm x-1-1" style="padding: 0px;" ><div id="" class="x-text cs-ta-justify" style="" ><h3 style="text-align: center;">Five Core Values</h3> <div class="man" style="font-size: 125%;"> <p> </p> <p>While time based exchange systems have existed as far back as the early 19th century, Edgar Cahn of <a href="https://timebanks.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Timebanks USA</a> is most often credited with its late 20th century revitalization introducing such terms as “time dollar”, “time bank” and “time credit” into our parlance with his 1992 text, “Time Dollars”.</p> <p>He later went on to define four core values of co-production in his 2000 publication, “No More Throw-Away People” to which he later added a fifth value. 聽These values now form the ethical foundation of timebanks throughout the world.</p> </div> </div></div></div></div><div id="x-section-6" class="x-section cs-ta-center" style="margin: 0px;padding: 45px 0px; background-color: transparent;" ><div id="" class="x-container max width" style="margin: 0px auto;padding: 0px;" ><div class="x-column x-sm x-1-1" style="padding: 0px;" ><img decoding="async" class="x-img x-img-none" src="https://kolanutcollab.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/coproduction5.jpg" ></div></div></div><div id="x-section-7" class="x-section" style="margin: 0px;padding: 45px 0px 15px; background-color: transparent;" ><div id="" class="x-container max width" style="margin: 0px auto;padding: 0px;" ><div class="x-column x-sm x-1-2" style="padding: 0px;" ><div id="" class="x-text cs-ta-justify" style="" ><h3 style="text-align: center;">Asset</h3> <div class="man" style="font-size: 125%;"> <p> </p> <p>Every person is an asset. Everyone has something of value to share with another member of their community. Every person has a contribution which they can make towards making their community a more resilient, trusting and healthy environment. We approach timebanking from this asset based perspective because it allows us to meet the whole person in our interactions.</p> </div> </div></div><div class="x-column x-sm x-1-2" style="padding: 0px;" ><div id="" class="x-text cs-ta-justify" style="" ><h3 style="text-align: center;">Redefining Work</h3> <div class="man" style="font-size: 125%;"> <p> </p> <p>Some work is beyond a market price. The market economy has placed a premium on specific types of work and undervalued others. Money is not is not attracted to work which restores families, improves communities, engages democracy or shifts our society towards more socially just outcomes. Timebanking is designed to be a system which allows a community to develop a local economy centered in its own values and assign value to the things it deems significant or impactful.</p> </div> </div></div></div><div id="" class="x-container max width" style="margin: 0px auto;padding: 0px;" ><div class="x-column x-sm x-1-2" style="padding: 0px;" ><div id="" class="x-text cs-ta-justify" style="" ><h3 style="text-align: center;">Reciprocity</h3> <div class="man" style="font-size: 125%;"> <p> </p> <p>Giving works better when there is a mutual contribution and benefit to the exchange. The benefit may not be immediately reciprocated to the giver as in a barter transaction, but redounds to the whole community when a previous recipient now has an opportunity to become a giver. In timebanking, we pay our gratitude forward rather than paying it back. Through reciprocity, we shift from being volunteers offering unilateral acts of charity to stakeholders in community acknowledging that our fates are intertwined with those we are helping.</p> </div> </div></div><div class="x-column x-sm x-1-2" style="padding: 0px;" ><div id="" class="x-text cs-ta-justify" style="" ><h3 style="text-align: center;">Social Networks</h3> <div class="man" style="font-size: 125%;"> <p> </p> <p>We need each other. Vibrant communities are built on the foundation of deeply rooted social networks. Networks are stronger than individual citizens. We can access this collective strength by pooling our unique skills and intangible assets in a space where members of our local communities may engage with them more readily. Through timebanking, we can reestablish a social infrastructure grounded in mutual support, strength and trust which becomes a social safety net scaleable enough to bridge the gaps in each of our communities.</p> </div> </div></div></div><div id="" class="x-container max width" style="margin: 0px auto;padding: 0px;" ><div class="x-column x-sm x-1-1" style="padding: 0px;" ><div id="" class="x-text cs-ta-justify" style="" ><h3 style="text-align: center;">Respect</h3> <div class="man" style="font-size: 125%;"> <p> </p> <p>Every person matters. In the construction of just, democratic and community oriented spaces, we strive to honor this value of respect by being thoughtful, sympathetic and reflective in how we deal with one another. I am not who I was yesterday and I may not be who I am now tomorrow. We respect the journey that each member of our community must take and commit to build a supportive social infrastructure around each member to aid them in their journey.</p> </div> </div></div></div></div></div> </div> </div> </article> </div> </div> <footer class="x-colophon bottom" role="contentinfo"> <div class="x-container max width"> <div class="x-colophon-content"> <div style="font-size:125%";><strong>2150 Canalport 路 (773) 369-7400 路 <a href="mailto:connect@kolanutcollab.org">connect@kolanutcollab.org</a></strong></div> <div style="font-size:125%";><strong>An Initiative of Kola Community Solutions LLC</strong></div> </div> </div> </footer> <div class="x-searchform-overlay"> <div class="x-searchform-overlay-inner"> <div class="x-container max width"> <form method="get" id="searchform" class="form-search center-text" action="https://kolanutcollab.org/"> <label for="s" class="cfc-h-tx tt-upper">Type and Press “enter” to Search</label> <input type="text" id="s" class="search-query cfc-h-tx center-text tt-upper" name="s"> </form> </div> </div> </div> </div>  <a class="x-scroll-top right fade" title="Back to Top" data-rvt-scroll-top> <i class='x-framework-icon x-icon-angle-up' data-x-icon-s='' aria-hidden=true></i> </a> </div>  <script type="text/javascript" id="cs-js-extra"> /* <![CDATA[ */ var csJsData = {"linkSelector":"#x-root a[href*=\"#\"]","bp":{"base":4,"ranges":[0,480,767,979,1200],"count":4}}; /* ]]> */ </script> <script type="text/javascript" src="https://kolanutcollab.org/wp-content/plugins/cornerstone/assets/js/site/cs-classic.7.5.10.js?ver=7.5.10" id="cs-js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" id="email-forms-site-js-js-extra"> /* <![CDATA[ */ var email_forms = {"ajax_url":"https:\/\/kolanutcollab.org\/wp-admin\/admin-ajax.php"}; /* ]]> */ </script> <script type="text/javascript" src="https://kolanutcollab.org/wp-content/plugins/tco-email-forms/email-integration/js/site/main.js" id="email-forms-site-js-js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" id="x-site-js-extra"> /* <![CDATA[ */ var xJsData = {"scrollTop":"0.75","icons":{"down":"<i class='x-framework-icon x-icon-angle-double-down' data-x-icon-s='' aria-hidden=true><\/i>","subindicator":"<i class=\"x-icon x-framework-icon x-icon-angle-double-down\" aria-hidden=\"true\" data-x-icon-s=\"\"><\/i>","previous":"<i class='x-framework-icon x-icon-previous' data-x-icon-s='' aria-hidden=true><\/i>","next":"<i class='x-framework-icon x-icon-next' data-x-icon-s='' aria-hidden=true><\/i>","star":"<i class='x-framework-icon x-icon-star' data-x-icon-s='' aria-hidden=true><\/i>"}}; /* ]]> */ </script> <script type="text/javascript" src="https://kolanutcollab.org/wp-content/themes/x/framework/dist/js/site/x.js?ver=10.5.10" id="x-site-js"></script> <script type="text/javascript" src="https://kolanutcollab.org/wp-includes/js/comment-reply.min.js?ver=6.7.1" id="comment-reply-js" async="async" data-wp-strategy="async"></script> <script type="text/javascript" id="x-stack-js-extra"> /* <![CDATA[ */ var xJsStackData = {"backstretch":[["\/\/kolanutcollab.theibisofficial.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/Nigeria_cola_nuts.jpg"],{"fade":"750"}]}; /* ]]> */ </script> <script type="text/javascript" src="https://kolanutcollab.org/wp-content/themes/x/framework/dist/js/site/stack.js?ver=10.5.10" id="x-stack-js"></script> </body> </html>