See Currency
Local currencies are well understood and deploying them is straight forward. My current recommendation is CYCLOS4 Pro, which can be deployed here for free any time. I strongly recommend deploying it at the neighborhood level--at least to begin with. Local currency is created in the act of creating value--not in the act of creating interest bearing debt. The value of local currencies do not fluctuate with national or global economic crises. There need be no shortage of money even in economic depressions. Local currencies can also be gifted/donated to local causes. Modern platforms provide ways to match goods and services to providers and users.
I will have more to say about local currencies, but for now I want to suggest what they should be involved in--what local economy they should underpin.
Food, housing, transportation, care and development of children and youth, education, healthy and beautiful local ecology (including land, water, animals), local governance (problem solving and development). What I am suggesting is that people working at any of these things in a neighborhood can be paid in the neighborhood's local currency and they can purchase any locally produced goods and services from this local "market basket."
A local food system includes growing, storing, transporting, marketing, preparing meals, and of course the actual meals themselves. A friend of mine created Plates, an app for sharing the making and sharing of meals.
Local water system means providing clean water to homes. This could include wells, piping, cisterns. It could also support reduced waste of water.
Local housing system, includes directly providing housing for others, building building, maintaining and improving buildings, and property management.
Transportation includes providing local transport for people and materials. Creating and maintaining roads and sidewalks, providing and maintaining vehicles including bikes, and electric vehicles.
Care and development of children and youth (perhaps our most meaningful activity) includes day care, safe sports and recreation, learning by doing, reading, mentoring, teaching. It also helps us realize the aphorism--it takes a village to raise a child.
Health is much more than the treatment of disease. Certainly it includes medical knowledge and care but it also involves the day to day support of those with chronic medical conditions, prevention, screening, and most importantly health practices/behaviors--especially mental health and physical activity. Local residents in the role of community health workers make the most difference to prolonging life and decreasing the need for medical services.
Local ecology can include cleaning up our streets, and waterways. Maintaining and developing our parks and trails. Creating community gardens and common spaces.
The last in my list is local governance and problem solving. There is reason for caution with distant politics and governmental bureaucracies. They have not always served us well--in fact they are often too far removed to be as effective as we need. So, let's support a more local approach to problem solving and pay for much of it with local currency. If the neighborhood is small enough most people involved will not need to do it full time--thus they will be directly involved in the community and its problems and opportunities.
My point in this elaboration of the neighborhood economy is to have us realize that there is a lot to be done that is of value that can be facilitated with local currency which does not require using scarce US Dollars which can be reserved for buying goods and services that we cannot obtain from one another.