A quick list of community resource & skill sharing initiatives…

Streetbank – Putting people in touch with others in their local community (within 1 square mile) to share skills and resources. Read more

Ecomodo –  Allows people in the UK to lend and borrow each other’s everyday objects, skills and spaces with confidence for free, for a fee or for charity.  Read  more

Freecycle – Matching people who have things they want to get rid of with people who can use them, and so keeping usable items out of landfills.  Read more

Makerhood – Community initiative about to be piloted in the Brixton area to promote local artists and makers, and to enable people to buy things made in their local neighbourhoods.  Read more

Just for the Love of it – A ‘pay it forward’ site, the aim is to help reconnect people in their local communities through the simple act of sharing.   Read more

Bank of Happiness – Estonia based virtual collaboration network that allows people to share their skills and time within their communities. Read more

Streetbank

Streetbank is a new online platform and community project designed to ‘make the world a bit nicer by connecting neighbours with each other’

The idea is simple:  you use the site to get to know your neighbours within a mile of where you live or work, by helping them out in small but useful ways and lending and receiving small items.

The idea behind Streetbank was developed by Ryan, Nick and Sam, who, in their own words ‘got interested in the idea of lending’

Sam had had a good experience with his next-door neighbours. They had been lending stuff to him – small stuff mainly (like a cup of sugar), but it got bigger (like a ladder) and in time he found he was actually hanging out with his neighbours who turned out to be quite surprisingly nice once he got to know them.

So Sam talked to Ryan and Ryan reckoned that the Internet would be a handy way of sharing stuff with the community. And we realised that it could be more than just lending, like people giving stuff away and helping each other too. And we realised that it could also be a way of everyone getting to know their neighbours (in a moderately uncheesy way).

The site is free to join, although to become a member you have to show that you have something that you could share or give away – whether that be something practical like a ladder or a guidebook, or a skill such as guitar lessons or gardening.

Streetbank put me in mind of Estonia’s Bank of Happiness – a project which encourages community cohesion and community support systems by skill sharing, and there are also some similarities in the thinking behind Streetbank and the Big Society Network idea ‘Your Square Mile’ – a platform to enable and empower citizens to make a difference in the square mile that they live in.

Streetbank is an inspired idea, and one that fits well with the thinking behind Chain Reaction – that we are all connected, that we all have something to offer, and that we can achieve more together.

Find out more about Streetbank and get involved here