What comes to mind when you hear the word Barter? For me I think back to elementary school social studies learning the vocab word “Barter”. I remember learning about the trade and bartering in the lessons on relationships between the Native Americans and pioneers. It is not a common word heard in today’s culture. Well, we are not in the 1700 and there is still bartering happening today! The Barter School of Indianapolis formerly the Trade School of Indianapolis is an organization with the mission of bartering simple goods in exchange for knowledge and learning. Personally, I love this idea, I am a huge advocate for lifelong learning!
The Barter School of Indianapolis host 4-6 classes a week at Rabble Coffee. These classes range in topics from staying in Airbnb’s, cake decorating, gardening 101, understanding the effects of trauma, mail art, etc. You do have to reserve a ticket online but the tickets are free. For each event there is a list of items to bring as your barter good. There is usually a wide range of items that would be useful as a gift or tool for the instructor the class. I attended a class on essential oil and I brought Epsom salts as my barter good. Therefore I received an hour and a half of essential oil education in exchange for a big bag of salt. It was a pretty good deal if you ask me.
I really enjoyed the class I attended. As a yoga instructor, I am always looking for more education in any holistic realm. In my class we went through a PowerPoint and a discussion over the most useful essential oils. It is easy just to put an oil that smells nice into a diffuser but oils have many more uses. Here we discussed all the different topical, household, and ingestible ways you can use oils as well. I was able to take tons of notes in ways to incorporate oils into my daily life as a transition out of using cleaning products and some beauty products. I found value in attending this evening class and I found so many more I want to go to this spring.
Not only are classes offered here but so is a sense of community. This school is completely ran by volunteers. Many of the instructors also attend the other classes as a student. This is a stellar organization to be involved with if you favor personal and education growth. As I said, all of the classes are held in a coffee shop which further creates the vibe of a cozy community, perfect to spend any evening.
The Barter School is currently looking for a volunteer to take over a community outreach position. This person would be helping connect the Barter School with other organizations. They would work to create opportunities for partnering and promotions. If you would be interested in this position you can connect with Emily Snyder; email her at the address below.
The listing of upcoming classes can be found on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/barterschoolindy/. This is the main source of advertising and trafficking. If you have any questions or are interested in volunteering you can contact them at barterschoolindy@gmail.com