Vogelmorn Bowling Club: a story of creativity, connection, and resilience.
Miro Fisch
In just under 10 years, committed locals have resuscitated the Vogelmorn Bowling Club from neglect and disrepair, into a thriving beacon of community activity. In 2015, soon to be members of the Vogelmorn Community Group, saw that their local bowling club was being put up for sale. Concerned that this tremendous asset would “get lost under a bulldozer’s blade and turned into housing development”, they went about establishing a Charitable Trust in order to take formal ownership. Over the past decade, the precinct, including the green, the club, and the hall, have been hosts to various theatre shows, community dinners, dance performances, and political meetings, bringing people together in a celebration of community. This modest but mighty community-space tucked in the foothills of Pōneke tells a story of creativity, connection, and resilience.
The Vogelmorn Community is a living example of Community Wealth Building (CWB), a vision for economic development that elevates the wellbeing of people and te taiao over profit and short-term financial gain. At its core, CWB aims to empower and reshape communities in alignment with five key pillars:
Harnessing spending and local supply chains
Prioritising fair employment
Investing locally
Diversifying ownership models
Making land and assets work for locals and the environment
Speaking with a Vogelmorn Community Group member, Sophie Jerram, we can see how these principles are manifested in practice.
“Our aim is to build commons as long-term, mixed-use, spaces for community, not just have the market and government be the driver of economic development. ”
Embodying Pillar 5 of CWB, making land and assets work for locals and the environment, the Vogelmorn Community has transformed a previously under-utilised asset to create opportunities and value for local residents. Through restructuring the function and ownership of this local resource, community members are granted self-determination to shape its future.
In a world where traditional paradigms of economic development make GDP growth sacrosanct, the Vogelmorn Community offers a way to transcend this narrow approach. This alternative framework for community development channels economic power to support locals and their unique needs, irrespective of whether it guarantees economic growth in a traditional sense. Sophie encapsulates how members of the Vogelmorn Community have reimagined economic development to be more circular, wherein “users become producers”. For example, “locals come to the cafe at the precinct not just to consume coffee, but to see how they can get involved and contribute to the experiences of others”. Ultimately, the cafe doesn’t exist to make a profit, but to service the community.
From Vogelmorn Community Group
Looking at Pillar 4, diversifying ownership models, this is manifested in the Vogelmorn Community’s decentralised decision-making and collective ownership, held by the trust and its members, rather than private interests. “Trustees come and go,” Sophie says, “not in it for personal benefit, but for the sake of the community”. This enables the Vogelmorn Community to harness the diverse wealth of the community to create positive outcomes for everyone, and in turn, nurture further community wealth. This symbiotic relationship doesn’t have to be complex, it can simply be found in things we think of as ‘essentially human’: dancing together, eating together, working together, and crucially, belonging together. The Vogelmorn Community embodies this commitment, connecting members through a sense of dependability and trust, alongside love and inclusivity.
Looking to the future, Sophie says that the Vogelmorn Community is already advising hopes to inspire other communities around Aotearoa to create spaces that bring disconnected communities together where people can feel like they have a ‘second home’. The Vogelmorn Community illustrates how community wealth can be fostered by unlocking the resources and skills that already exist in our communities. For the Vogelmorn Community Group this is through artistic practices - including with resident theatre company Barbarian Productions. It also hosts a toy library, skill sharing co-working spaces, communal dinners, and music events, but for others, Community Wealth Building may mean something different.
Whatever your role - community leader, councillor, government agency, iwi entity or business - you can offer meaningful leadership in growing a Community Wealth Building approach in your local area.
If you or your organisation are interested, WEAll Aotearoa would love to have a conversation about how to raise awareness and take steps towards a Community Wealth Building approach in your community. We can support you with resources and connections.
Miro is an active supporter of WEAll Aotearoa, active member of his community on Waiheke, and works at Oxfam Aotearoa.
From Vogelmorn Community Group
