Richard Scott, Chairman of the Arc Healthly Living Centre board, pictured looking at an artist impression of the work that will be carried out
ON Wednesday past, the chairman of Fermanagh District Council, Alex Baird will cut the sod to kick off a £1m first phase of an ambitious ‘health and care village’ initiative in Irvinestown.
The ‘village’ will be located on a nine-acre site next to the ARC Healthy Living Centre, and when this and subsequent phases are completed, it will allow a co-location of a range of health and social care initiatives on that site.
The Public Health Agency for Northern Ireland provide core support to the existing ARC facility whose chief executive officer is Jenny Irvine.
She told the Herald: “This development presents us with enormous opportunities for understanding health and health inequalities, and, it will enable us in a very practical way to help local people help themselves.
The centre will focus on promoting positive health, and recognises that individuals and communities have a significant role to play in transforming the way we view and shape health service delivery.”
The building due for completion next year.
When operational, it will house a range of community led health and wellbeing initiatives, including CHERISH sure start, and it will be purpose built to suit the needs of a wide variety of centre users.
It will have a pedestrian link to the existing ARC facility.
It is intended that the building will form a key part of the Health & Care Village, co-locating primary care and dental services on a shared site, promoting the vision of, “Transforming Your Care” and integrating a range of services and service providers on an accessible shared site.
Richard Scott, the chairman of ARC said the new facility would be a world-class centre of excellence.
The facility is part funded by South West Action for Rural Development (SWARD).
SWARD is the delivery mechanism for Axis 3 of the Northern Ireland Rural Development Programme 2007-2013 for the four District Council areas of Cookstown, Dungannon/South Tyrone, Fermanagh and Magherafelt.
The Rural Development Programme is part-financed through European funding and is managed by the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD). The Northern Ireland Housing Executive provided £20,000 match funding.
Councillor Sean Clarke, the vice chairperson of SWARD, explained that his organisation had invested £635,000 in Phase One of the ‘healthy and care village’ centre.
“It will deliver significant value to the local economy, so we are very excited to be moving on to this next, very tangible, stage of the development.”
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