Buurthuis de Bol is a community centre in Amsterdam Noord, run by the people from the neighbourhood. I work there as a programmer, supporting residents in setting up their own initiatives. My focus is on governance: designing clear structures for decision making, facilitating meetings, helping people make good agreements, and working on conflict de-escalation and mediation.
since 2023
In 2023, a group of active residents and community workers received the keys to an empty former sports school from the municipality, and began turning it into a neighbourhood centre. De Bol is located in De Kleine Wereld, a 1950s social housing area in Amsterdam Noord, where many residents come from different countries and cultures and often live on a low income.
Life at the Community Centre
De Bol has since grown into a lively place, full of activities. There is a kickboxing gym, a professional kitchen that serves affordable coffee, tea, and lunch during the week, jam sessions, homework clubs for children, clay workshops for women, a neighbourhood library, and a technical lab where young people can fix their bikes or experiment with 3D printing. The programme also includes activist workshops, political talks, film screenings, iftars, and big community dinners that raise money for causes close to the neighbourhood, such as Gaza or Sudan.
Life at the Community Centre
We didn’t only want to create a meeting place, but also address what we see as the root of many social challenges in the neighbourhood: poverty. That is why we became interested in Community Wealth Building and started developing cooperatives, such as the catering cooperative Restaurant Sufra, to create local jobs, shared ownership, and more economic stability in the neighbourhood.
At De Bol, working together with people from different cultures, education backgrounds, incomes, ages, and languages has taught me that governance is a craft. It takes time, practice, intention, and the right tools. It is not always smooth, and we are still figuring things out. By practising this craft, community groups do not just become more resilient, they become organised, visible, and capable of shaping the city on their own terms.
Life at the Community Centre
Life at the Community Centre
