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

IncludeAge Standard Newsletter:
Issue 14 - June 2025

Welcome to our monthly IncludeAge Newsletter!

News Updates & Celebrations

Funding News IncludeAge Response to Supreme Court Ruling

If you would like to read the IncludeAge response to the Supreme Court ruling on the Equality 2010 Act, you can find it HERE

New Team Members

We now have two new researchers who will be supporting our Learning Disabilities pathway. We would like to extend a warm welcome to Marie Coombs, and Dr. Charlotte Hardacre – it is great to have you both on board!  

International Reference Group Feedback

We held two meetings with our International Reference Group, to look at some of the early analysis coming from our Organisational Interviews data. This analysis is from the interviews with every day and general community organisations, as we are still early in the analytical process. So far, feedback has been very positive, and we have really appreciated gaining international perspectives on our work.

Data Generation Update

Life Course Interviews:

We have completed 134 Life Course Interviews with mid-older aged people who have a Learning Disability, or who are LGBT+  across the project. 59 of these interviews have been with people who have a Learning Disability, and 74 have been with people who are LGBT+

The Place Study:

We have now sent out more than 50 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. A total of 454 surveys have been submitted so far.

This means we have a huge amount of geographically linked data that can help us to learn more about how different physical and digital spaces and places feel for our participants. 

Social Network Mapping: 

We have completed 8 Social Network Maps with participants who have completed all other phases of data generation, this is a huge achievement, and we are extremely grateful to all who are still in the midst of taking part! 

Organisational Interviews:

We have now completed 55 Organisational Interviews with organisations across Scotland, England and Wales. The organisations that we have interviewed so far fall into the following categories: 10 age-related organisations, 20 everyday community organisations, 14 organisations who are focused on people with Learning Disabilities, and 11 organisations that are focused on people who are LGBT+. 

 If your organisation or someone you know might be interested in taking part in a short, anonymous interview you can let us know by replying to this email 😊 

IncludeAge Exhibition

IncludeAge Exhibition: Final stage plans are now underway for the first location of our IncludeAge Exhibition. The exhibition will be travelling to different venues in the UK during the next year. Our first display will be at the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Arts & Design, University of Dundee, with provisional dates of the 10th until the 24th of June 2025, it will be free and we will be circulating further information about the exact location and times very soon 😊 

Outreach

Conferences

Darren recently travelled to the Nordic Network on Disability Research conference in Helsinki to present on the IncludeAge project. His presentation was titled “The experiences of people with intellectual disabilities who identify as LGBT of Online Spaces and Community Places” and was warmly received. Darren has already been approached by some researchers about his presentation and potential connection moving forward. 

Judith has also been out and about, and presented to South West (England) Allied Health Professionals Network this month on “Inclusion, exclusion and place-making with mid-older LGBT+ people and mid-older people with Learning Disabilities”. This continuing professional development session was really well attended, with over 50 people joining. 

LEAP Sports Festival Fortnight

 LEAP Sports have asked us to share a link to their forthcoming Festival Fortnight. This is Scotland’s LGBTIQ+ Sports Festival, and LEAP are inviting events, volunteers, outreach support and venues to reach out and become part of the festival this June. Please see the link HERE

New Resources

The IncludeAge YouTube Channel!

Remember you can see our videos, including those of older newsletters on our YouTube channel HERE

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.