At just 24 years of age, former Rosmini College deputy head boy Joseph Bergin is an exceptional young man. It was an outstanding achievement when he was first-elected as a local board member in Auckland’s new council in 2010, at just 18 years of age. Since that elevation he has continued an impressive period of community service that has seen him rewarded twice previously with an AIMES Award.
Joseph first received an AIMES Emerging Talent Award in 2010 followed by an AIMES Service to the Community Award in 2012. A further AIMES Award this year comes on the back of his continued community service and his work driving youth innovation on the North Shore.
“These awards provided quite literally life-changing opportunities to me, as fellow recipients and many of the club members have become some of my best friends and most dependable mentors these past six years,” says Joseph. “Over and above this, the two financial grants went a significant way towards paying for my 2010 and 2013 election campaigns.”
For the past six years Joseph has served on the Devonport-Takapuna Local Board of the Auckland Council. For two terms he has been the youngest of the 170 elected members who make up the Auckland Council across the 21 local boards and the governing body. Upon re-election in 2013 he was made Deputy Chair (aged 21) and then in 2015 he became the Chair, at just 23. In that time he has also completed his law degree and worked as a clerk at two different national law firms.
His council role has included portfolios for community and social wellbeing; community safety; libraries; community facilities; economic development; town centres; governance and finance.
Right through Joseph’s service to the community on the Devonport-Takapuna Local Board of the Auckland Council he has been a strong advocate for youth. He has been a champion for the development of a Youth Innovation Centre on the North Shore.
“For the past eight years since I first got involved with the Birkenhead-Northcote Community Board as a youth representative, I have been arguing and researching and lobbying and whatever else it has taken to advance this Youth Innovation project,” explains Joseph. “Between myself, the former Youthworx Trust, the Zeal Education Trust and Sonia Thursby and the YES Foundation we have collectively considered, evaluated and presented more than 15 proposals for a centre for youth development somewhere on the North Shore. Time and time again I found myself in the political minority as successive Councils and Boards delayed decision-making on any centre in favour of further reports and studies. That all changed this year. When the Takapuna RSA closed, the club building reverted to Council ownership and a politically agreeable site was finally available for a youth centre.”
“Given the worrying conclusions identified in the Local Economic Development Action Plan that there are inadequate meaningful pathways to high-tech future-focused occupations for North Shore youth, the proposal was re-centred around not just a dedicated facility for young people but one with innovation as a core emphasis.”
After running a public tender and interviewing potential tenants for the space, the Joseph Bergin led Devonport-Takapuna Local Board – in what he describes as the highlight of his political career – unanimously approved the lease and an initial funding grant to the team at the Yes Foundation for New Zealand’s first youth innovation centre based at the RSA site in Takapuna.
“A task remains to get the building refurbished and raise the money to run it, but after eight years of advocating for this project, nothing is going to stop us from getting the centre up and running by the end of next year,” says Joseph.
In addition to his AIMES Awards, Joseph has also previously been recognised for his service to the community with a North Shore City Council Civic Award in 2010, a New Zealander of the Year Local Heroes Medal in 2010 and the Robert Ned Covich Scholarship for his university studies in 2010. In his final year at Rosmini College he received the College All Rounder Trophy for overall achievement across academia, athletics, the arts and spiritual direction and the Antonio Rosmini Cup for service.
"As the end of my second term on the Local Board drew nearer the end, I declared my decision not to seek a third term and instead to embark on my professional legal career," said Joseph late in 2016 after receiving his award. "To do this I will be returning to my former firm Kensington Swan in the new year looking forward to expand my environmental and public law advocacy.
"In the interim I plan to further my immersion in the Youth Innovation Centre project, starting with some overseas travel to Europe and America with the assistance of a fellowship grant from the Sir Winston Churchill Memorial Trust. I will be exploring how 'municipalities and NGOs across Europe promote and incentivise local economic development specifically in the youth innovation space and examining programmes and facilities that have been used to achieve this'. Although it is not yet clear how many fellowships have been offered for this round, however the Trust typically only offers between 10 and 15 fellowships in any given year.
"The Youth Innovation Centre is getting closer and closer to a reality with the head lease coming into effect on October 1st and a strong, youth-led collaborative approach guiding all aspects of the project."
As the recipient of the NORTH HARBOUR CLUB AIMES SERVICE TO THE COMMUNITY AWARD (sponsored by ASB), Joe Bergin received $15,000.
