Time to give and take at Marylebone

25 September 2009

Church Army's Marylebone Project for homeless women launched its latest initiative this week - a Time Bank.

At a small ceremony in Elgood House, a symbolic ribbon was cut by a representative from the (anonymous) foundation which has funded the development of this ingenious idea. The Marylebone Project Time Bank has now joined the ever expanding ranks of Timebanking UK - the national umbrella charity for supporting time banks, whose slogan is "Time to give and take".

So what is a Time Bank? In short, it enables people to generate 'credit' for whatever skills they possess; credit which can then be used to 'buy' skills from another member of the Time Bank. For example, if Katherine walks Emily's dog for an hour then she has generated one credit. She can spend that credit by getting Jack to wash her car. Katherine has given time to Emily and can now take it from Jack.

The various services offered by Time Banks are limited only by the skills of their members, and include: gardening; cooking; organising social events; dance classes; reading lessons; painting; massage and translation. For the women of the Marylebone Project, the Time Bank will give them a means of sharing skills they already possess with one another, for everyone's mutual benefit.

The first dozen residents of the Marylebone Project (London's largest hostel for homeless women) signed up to their Time Bank at the official launch. One of the residents Poly, was delighted to win the competition to design Marylebone Time Bank's new logo, winning herself a laptop in the process!

It is envisaged that the Time Bank will engage increasingly with the wider Marylebone community including the local church, St Paul's, with whom Church Army has a strong link. If this succeeds in expanding the membership then it is possible that future residents of the Project may be able to start small businesses, via the Time Bank.

To see more about the work of Church Army go to the official website.

Mariola helps the homeless get fighting fit

Hostel gym instructor lived on streets

A HOMELESS woman has become a successf ul fitness instructor after the Marylebone Project she lived in built its own gym.
Mariola Garcia-Fraile, 32, was desperate and destitute when she arrived at the hostel in September 2007. Initially living in a squat in Hackney, she had battled to avoid descending into drug and alcohol abuse.
After being evicted from the squat, Mariola spent time sleeping rough, but it was an abusive partner that finally made her try to break the cycle she was in and seek help.
"My partner was abusing me, he was violent," she said. "I got fed up and decided to try and shout for help - that's when I tried to get out of this mess and do something with my life."
Her cry for help was answered by the Marylebone Project, and she began to rebuild her life as a resident there. She played a major part in setting up the gym, becoming its first qualified instructor.
And Mariola thinks organisations like the Marylebone Project are vital to give homeless women the extra support that they need.
"Women are more vulnerable," she said. "It's harder because we don't have so much help in life.
"This world is for men, it's true, but now we are getting more rights and more involvement in society on all levels.
"Thanks to the project, I got enough confidence to go out and say, 'now it's me and the world'. All this time my confidence just grew and grew, I wasn't intimidated at all, what I did here helped me so much."
Mariola now lives with her three-month-old baby in north-east London and returns to the gym to provide instruction and support to hostel residents.
Hostel manager Angie Coleman said: "The aim is to get other people trained and then for them to come back and use their skills to provide sessions for the ­other residents. Hopefully that will encourage other people to become instructors or even just to use the gym and promote their own health.
"We're also in desperate need of qualified REPS [Register of Exercise Professionals] instructors to volunteer here and help get the ball rolling."
Angie said the gym was conceived as a plan to offer residents more opportunities and to get them out of their rooms during the day.
She added: "We were trying to look at ways of carving out training and employment opportunities for the women. We wanted a real emphasis on health, but every aspect of it, not just working out. It's also about emotional health and relieving stress."