Catching up with AIMES Alumni Joe Bergin

Joe was the recipient of the 2012 & 2016 AIMES Service to the Community Award, sponsored by Albany Toyota, and the 2010 AIMES Emerging Talent Award sponsored by Bellingham Wallace.

Joe is a previous AIMES winner twice over for his work in community and in the youth development sector. His service on a number of local charities for more than a decade and two terms on the Devonport-Takapuna Local Board as Auckland’s youngest elected member have been spent leading programmes focused on investing in a brighter future for the next generation. Now a resource management and infrastructure lawyer at Buddle Findlay, Joe still remains active within the Club as a Judge for the Junior Excellence Awards and the Chair of the AIMES Winners Network…


The AIMES Awards were a catalyst that gave me the support I needed to go from talking about changing the future for our community and its young people to putting it into action. While a big part of that is the financial support and the endorsement of winning an AIMES award, I’ve always said that the support of the North Harbour Club network and its incredible members means so much more. Through the mentorship and friendship I have received from so many of the Club members in the years since winning my Emerging Talent Award I have not only grown personally and professionally but I have been empowered to accomplish my most ambitious goals.

It's because of the value I have gained from that I was so honoured to be asked to chair the AIMES Winners Network. This excellent initiative generously supported by Simpson Western has brought together 24 years of winners to form a support and social network for winners new and more established. This coming year I hope to expand the remit of the Network with the help of an outstanding team to include peer mentoring and giving-back initiatives to be run through the soon-to-be-opened Shore Junction youth innovation centre.

While I am incredibly fortunate to be able to look around the room at any North Harbour Club function and see people who have inspired me and helped me grow over the years, we know there are hundreds of young people in our community brimming with potential but needing some help to realise it. Because of the broad categories covered by the AIMES Awards our winners come from an amazingly broad range of experiences and vocations and so the Network will be exploring ways in which we can create an equally broad programme to share their skills and experiences with as many of our local young people as we can.

Despite the upheaval of the past few months we are still hoping to develop these programmes this year alongside the team at Shore Junction and look forward to keeping you all posted. To that end, I encourage any former winners and current members who are interested in getting more involved with the Network to get in touch with myself or Catherine Lamb.

 

Cheers,

Joe Bergin   CF

 

AIMES Alumni are welcome to make contact in the following way:

Joe Bergin - joseph@bergin.net.nz
Catherine Lamb - catherine@northharbourclub.co.nz