SBS Dateline | Making Money

While political parties bitterly debate Greece's future in the eurozone, some people have found their own solution to the crisis - one that doesn't rely on the euro at all.

Amos Roberts reports from the city of Volos, where a community has established its own alternative currency in response to salary cuts and 20% unemployment.

It’s based on exchanging goods and services for TEM, which can be spent locally to keep the city’s economy, and community, moving.

The ethos is solidarity, not profit, with a limit on the amount of TEM that people can accumulate, and in a time when euros are short, it’s proving a lifeline.

What started out as the initiative of a handful of activists has grown to a network of more than 900 people with its own weekly market. The city council is even allowing people to pay some fees using the new currency.

There are now more than a dozen similar schemes in Greece, and with a big question mark hanging over the future, could the people of Volos already have found the solution?

WATCH - Click to see Amos’s report from Dateline’s special program on the crisis in Greece.

HOW DOES IT WORK? - There are many similar schemes around the world, but all with broadly the same rules. Read our guide to how they work.

TEM - TEM stands for Τοπική Εναλλακτική Μονάδα, which translates as Alternative Local Unit. The currency's website has more information in Greek (or in English via Google Translate).

INTERVIEW WITH AMOS - Amos talks to SBS World News Australia Radio about his story and how TEM has helped boost morale in Volos.

DEBT CRISIS - SBS's World News Australia has the latest coverage of the eurozone debt crisis.

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Photo (TEM cheque book): AAP