The IncludeAge Project - Inclusion of diverse older people in community and public places and virtual spaces

IncludeAge Newsletter:
Issue 9 - December 2024

Welcome to our monthly IncludeAge Newsletter!

News Updates & Celebrations

Congratulations to Darren

We would like to share the great news that Darren Chadwick has been promoted to Professor! Well done Darren, congratulations! 

Life Course Interview Update

We have completed over 100 Life Course Interviews with mid-older aged people who have a Learning Disability or who are LGBT+ across the project, and we are busy organising different ways to analyse all of the data we generated.

Place Study Update

We have now sent out over 40 tablets for the 2nd phase of our project – the Place Study. Data is now coming in from mid-older people with Learning Disabilities and mid-older people who are LGBT+ who are based in Scotland, England and Wales.

We have had a fantastic response so far, with interesting real-time insights from different physical places and online spaces visited by participants across time.

Developing StoryMaps from Place Study Data

Using ArcGIS, we have begun to build StoryMaps with some participants who have finished the Place Study.

We use the geographical or online locations, photos, audio-clips and written responses that participants sent to us through surveys during the Place Study to create interactive digital StoryMaps of participants' experiences in these places.   

Some of the IncludeAge team met in Newcastle on 4th November to start analysing Place Study data and to practice building StoryMaps. We have some images that show a little bit of the kinds of data we have so far.

The chart below shows how mid-older people with a Learning Disability who completed the survey felt when they were filling a survey out in one particular place or space:

As well as choosing from responses in our survey, we have asked participants to use their own words to describe their experiences. Here we asked participants who are LGBT+ to let us know why they were visiting the physical place or online space:

Organisational Interviews Update

Our 3rd data generation phase is Organisational Interviews. We have already completed 24 interviews with a range of organisations across Scotland, England and Wales, to find out challenges, barriers and facilitators of inclusion. The organisations are broadly split into those that have a focus on people with Learning Disabilities, people who are LGBT+, people who are older, and more general public organisations. 

Wishing You All a Wonderful Winter Break! 

We would like to wish everyone who celebrates a really Happy Christmas, we hope that everyone manages a wee break during the winter  and stays cosy 😊 🎄❄️⛄ 

Because we will be taking a break too, the next IncludeAge Newsletter will be mid-January 2025. After that we will be circulating our news on the first Monday of the month again from February.

Outreach

Hannah and Joanna Support People to Take Part in IncludeAge

One of our co-researchers Hannah and Joanna from Liverpool John Moores University have been running Tablet Support Workshops every Wednesday morning at People First Merseyside. These sessions are a drop in for anyone from the centre who is taking part in (or would like to take part) the Place Study. People who attend have been able to practice filling out the surveys and ask any questions they have. Hannah has also supported some members use the tablet at different physical locations within the community. 

Richard Attended a Symposium on Engaged Research

Richard attended a symposium hosted by the University of Warwick entitled 'Lively and mobile? Engaging publics across the research process' on 7th November. Richard gave a presentation titled 'Engaged research and active publics: (re)making lively connections'.

Mei Presented at the Gerontological Society of America's Annual Conference

Our project co-lead Mei presented on the IncludeAge project at the Gerontological Society of America’s annual conference in Seattle, USA. The presentation, titled, “Understanding Inclusive Physical Places and Virtual Spaces: The Fortitude of Older Marginalised Communities”, received very positive feedback from Gerontology researchers in the US, Singapore and China.

The researchers noted that “there are a lot of people who say that they do community-engaged research, but are only conducting interviews. This project is a true example of community-based participatory research”. A colleague from Singapore was keen to create a Singaporean chapter of IncludeAge and invited us to provide a presentation to his students.

Judith Visited the Meeting Centre in Kirriemuir, Scotland

On 11th November Judith visited the Meeting Centre in Kirriemuir to conduct some of the Organisational Interviews. This is a centre where people with dementia and their carers and/or family can meet to enjoy social time, sing, laugh, do crafts and other activities. They provide information, support and signposting. Staff were interviewed regarding the inclusions/ exclusions they see experienced by people they cater for. 

A Recording of Fiona's Seminar on Social Network Research is Available

For those who missed it, a recording of Fiona’s talk for the Gerontology Lecture Series at Simon Fraser University on Social Network Research, Egonets and Qualitative Research can be found here: Fiona Dobbie Social Network Research, Egonets and Qualitative Research

New Resources

Our Website

A wee reminder that you can get in touch with us using our website at: IncludeAge Or by replying to this email!

Our Project Outputs

We are sharing project outputs over the course of the project on our Project Outputs page. New resources will be shared in our newsletter each month. 

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