The Oak Healthy Living Centre
Erne East Community Partnership Ltd (EECP) was formed in 1999 and is a cross-community partnership for 11 community organisations representing the 6 electoral wards that make up the Erne East District Electoral Area.
In 2002, the partnership successfully applied to Big Lottery’s Healthy Living Centre programme which aimed to address multiple deprivation. The area includes some of the most deprived wards in Northern Ireland regarding geographical access to services and the past 20 years has seen a further withdrawal of many essential services.
The Oak Healthy Living Centre (Oak HLC) has expanded and changed from initially being a project delivering activities in rural halls to undertaking a greater focus on delivering health related services centrally including:
- Suicide prevention
- Training
- Mental health courses and counselling
- Community first responders
- Drop-in centre for addictions and mild mental health
- Anti-poverty work
- Family based services and childcare
- Smoking cessation
- Physical activity
- Older peoples services including dementia support, pain and condition management and falls prevention.
Oak HLC coordinate programmes both locally and regionally for the Public Health Agency.
In 2023 EECP purchased a derelict supermarket on Lisnaskea Main Street and has plans to develop an Erne East Community Health Hub including a number of social enterprises to include tourism pods, homelessness provision, community creche childcare provision and a social café. Income from these developments will support their charitable work. EECP plans to develop their hub with energy efficiency and sustainability as central themes incorporated at the design stage as a demonstration model to the community.
Project updates
EMP Update - Lisnaskea
A successful community meeting was held at the Oak Healthy Living Facility in Lisnaskea on June 3, 2025. The meeting was attended by six community representatives & partners. The goal was to advance the tender application as a group/community. It was highlighted that community buildings would be a large part of the tender. The turnout was positive, and it was agreed that Fiona from Fermanagh RCN will follow up to ensure that projected groups were still interested in benefitting from the community building assessments. The SEC team gave reassurance of their support and highlighted the importance of advancing the process.
Following a series of community meetings hosted by Oak Healthy Living Centre, Advice NI published a tender request to appoint an energy consultant. The consultant will be assessing 50 homes, 7 community buildings, creating a community energy baseline and identifying community projects that can help in their energy saving goals.
The deadline to reply to the tender request was 15th July 2025.
Lisnaskea Community Update
Jason and Eleazar spoke to attendees at the Jobs & Benefits, Information & Health Fair Event and publicising the project.
Furthermore, a townhall meeting was held on December 2024 titled Bright Ideas for a Sustainable Community. This event brought about 30 residents together to discuss their energy-related needs and explore sustainable solutions tailored to the area. The engaging discussions and active participation underscored Lisnaskea’s dedication to a greener future.
In March 2025 the team have undertaken a series of meetings with the community groups to develop the Energy Master Plan and prepare for the procurement of a community consultant. This involves identifying the areas which the community want to focus on, identifying the community buildings to be assessed and the residential buildings for home energy assessments.
On 1st April 2025, Jason and Eleazar attended an Oak Healthy Living Event. They also visited Kenny Kerins, chairperson of the local GAA club and toured the grounds which are set to benefit from the project through an energy assessment.
Outreach Clinics in Lisnaskea
The Advice NI outreach clinics are now operational in Lisnaskea. Bernie Rowntree, Manager of Community Advice Fermanagh is leading 12 clinics throughout 2025, one each month, at the Lisnaskea Library. Following community feedback, some sessions will be scheduled in the evening every other month to improve accessibility. These clinics will provide vital support, and we’ll receive regular updates on attendance through a reporting system. Our project is supporting these efforts with staff time, travel, room rental, and marketing assistance.
For further information, call: 02866 324334.
We look forward to continued collaboration with this vibrant community as we pursue sustainable energy goals together!