WATERVILLE -- Trade your time, energy and skills for services you need and, in the process, help revitalize your community.

That is the idea behind a new Mid Maine Time Bank for the Waterville and Skowhegan area, which is hosting a kick-off event at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish Hall on High Street in Fairfield from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Sunday. Registration is at 4 p.m.

An initiative of the Kennebec Valley Organization, which includes churches, civic organizations, fraternal groups and others, the time bank will allow people to exchange their time for services they need.

And as people help themselves by helping their neighbors, the time bank aims to build connections within communities.

"It is a way of rebuilding and revitalizing areas in the community," said Joe Rowden, coordinator of the project.

"It is a way (participants) can reconnect in their community. Everybody has something to offer."

Services people can offer include transportation, errands, shopping, financial counseling, reading, tutoring, household and automotive repair, lessons, hair care, pet grooming, computer support and help with elder care.

The Kennebec Valley Organization decided to initiate a time bank partly out of concern about the need for direct care and long-term care for Maine's large and growing elder population.

Long-term care and direct-care workers often struggle with low wages and low benefits, as well as long and unpredictable hours.

Those issues could affect the ability of elderly people in long-term care or those who are living in their own homes to receive the care that they need.

George Hodgkins, president of the Kennebec Valley Organization, said both the plight of care providers and the elderly are a grave concern.

A time bank is one way the Kennebec Valley Organization has identified to help the elderly receive more services by trading their own time and skills.

By giving their own time and skills for things they would otherwise have to pay for and meeting more people in their own community, Rowden said the time bank can help the elderly be safer and make the community a safer place.

The time bank can also help lawyers, electricians and people who work in practically any profession, although Rowden said people do not have to offer only their professional skills.

"Anything you like to do is something that can be offered," said Rowden.

Vivian Hodgkins, a member of the Mid Maine Time Bank leadership team, said time bank members in other communities have forged many creative partnerships.

A time bank in Portland has roughly 800 members.

Vivian Hodgkins said members of that time bank include a theater company that provides tickets for their performances in exchange for the help of time bank members in transporting actors from the airport, boarding them or other services.

Sunday's kick-off will include a soup and bread supper with potluck appetizers and deserts appreciated, but not required.

Membership in the time bank is free and open to anyone. On site child care is available Sunday, but parents are asked to register ahead. For more information or to register, call Rowden at 314-4720.

Alan Crowell -- 861-9244

acrowell@centralmaine.com