COME is a Local currency project, started in Hong Kong by the St. James Settlement, a Hong KongNGO. The COME project prints its own currency, which it issues to members when they join. Members are given one time dollar at the time they sign up, and another time dollar if they list services that they are willing to provide (in exchange for time dollars) in a regular bulletin. In economics, a local currency is a currency not backed by a national government, and intended to trade only in a small area. ... A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an organization which is independent from the government. ...
COME has semi-monthly market days, when participants meet to exchange services - haircuts and facials for example - in exchange for time dollars. As of June, 2005, COME has about 500 members, about half of whom live close to Wan Chai, where the project is based. The Wan Chai district (灣仔區), or simply Wan Chai or Wanchai, is one of the 18 districts of Hong Kong, located in the north of Hong Kong island. ...
The COME project resembles Ithaca HOURS to some degree, although the focus is more on low income residents. There has been little involvement with local businesses to date, although the project does receive donated goods, which are sold (for time dollars) in a small store that the project runs. Participants can also sell their own goods, for a combination of time dollars and Hong Kong dollars. Normally the participants recover their cost of providing the goods with the Hong Kong dollar amount, with profit taken in the form of time dollars. Ithaca Hours is a local currency in Ithaca, New York. ...
References
COME project home page (mostly in Chinese)
Pictures of the COME currency
In Search of a Communal Economic Subject 2003 academic article by Dr. Hui Po-Keung, an advisor to the project.
In economics, a local currency, in its common usage, is a currency not backed by a national government (and not necessarily legal tender), and intended to trade only in a small area—though anyone may redeem the currency's worth.
An example of this is the Argentine economic crisis of 2002 in which small-denomination interest-free provincial bond IOUs issued by local governments quickly took on some of the characteristics of local currencies successfully.
Opponents of this concept argue that local currency creates a barrier which can interfere with economies of scale and comparative advantage, and that in some cases they can serve, like traditional national currencies, as a means of tax evasion.
Community organizations, housing and health care coalitions, self-help groups and advocates for environmental justice are among those demanding participation in the development of social knowledge, policy and practice (Epstein, 1995; Gottlieb, 1994; Gartner and Riessman, 1974; Jackson and McKay, 1982; Levine, 1982; Merrifield, 1989; Nelkin and Brown, 1984; Sohng, 1992; Yeich and Levine, 1992).
Together with a collaborating organization, such as a community development agency, social service agency, or community health clinic, the researcher contacts members of the community, activates their interest in the problem to be dealt with by action-driven research, and helps to organize community meetings where the relevant research issues will be discussed.
Once community members begin to get together to discuss their collective problem, the researcher participates in these meetings to help formulate the problem in a manner conducive to investigation, making use of the community knowledge that he or she developed earlier.
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