About Us

WHO WE ARE?

Established in 2001, the Old Library Trust is a registered charity that provides services and activities to reduce health inequalities, address the underlying causes of poor health and improve community health and wellbeing.

We operate from and manage a Healthy Living Centre facility in Central Drive, Creggan: whose people are nothing but welcoming, second to none, with leaders across all sectors doing amazing work .Unfortunately the area itself is still being ranked as one of the most deprived areas in the North of Ireland. We primarily serve this community of Creggan, and we are proud to do so followed by supporting our neighbouring areas across the Moor Ward and beyond.

The Healthy Living Centre contains physical activity spaces, multi-functional meeting spaces, a community café as well as rentable space that is used by services that complement our work. For example, our Family support service is strengthened by housing our key tenant Surestart Edenballymore.
More than 2,000 people per week attend the Healthy Living Centre facility, participating in services and programmes aimed at reducing inequalities in health and tackling the root causes of ill health.

Participants range from children and young people, parents, adults, and older people. All the services are underpinned by an aspiration to enhance health and wellbeing.

Meet Our Team >

OUR APPROACH

Throughout the years, the Old Library Trust (OLT) has adopted a community development approach to engage people in health improvement initiatives, early year’s development, and community healing through partnership with statutory and voluntary service providers.
The HLC is a model of good practice for the delivery of community-based social and health care services aimed at reducing the inequalities in health by tackling the root causes of ill health.
Our organisation is committed to improving community health, addressing local needs, building confidence, and developing knowledge and skills to support people to take greater responsibility for their own health and wellbeing.
The ethos of partnership and collaboration underpins our work and we endorse the collective responsibility of all in tackling health inequalities by meeting the health and wellbeing needs of local residents in the Creggan area, the Moor ward and beyond. Through partnership with the Triax Neighbourhood Renewal Partnership, the Creggan Community Forum and the Healthy Living Centre Alliance the OLT works to influence on the availability and delivery of services by statutory and voluntary service providers.
We will continue to develop opportunities to work jointly with other providers in the statutory and voluntary sectors to ensure that services are accessible to all, particularly those who tend not to access services and support.
We remain a committed member of the HLC Alliance. The aim of the Alliance is to share knowledge and best practice, harmonise systems, policies, and procedures where appropriate, provide peer support to colleagues in other Healthy Living Centres and speak with one voice as far as it is possible to do so to maximise influence on decision-makers.
OUR STRATEGY

The following strategy sets out our purpose and our core areas of work for the period 2022 – 2025. This captures first and foremost the essence of what we aspire to do for the people in Creggan and the surrounding areas but also how we will share best practice and maintain and create new partnerships that will enable us to sustain and grow into the future.
OUR PURPOSE

We simply exist to make it easier for people to lead healthier lives at our healthy living centre in the heart of the Creggan community. We are proud of where we are from and who we represent. We are privileged to be able to provide local people with quality opportunities to improve their health and mental wellbeing and will always advocate on their behalf to ensure that this community is not an afterthought.