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

IncludeAge Standard Newsletter:
Issue 3 - June 2024

Welcome to our monthly IncludeAge Newsletter!

News Updates

Liverpool Bonanza

On the 23rd and 24th of May, 15 members of the project, including Community Advisory Group members, Co-Researchers, Co-Investigators and Academics met in Liverpool and were joined by many more online. The Community Advisory Groups worked on discussions about human rights, and the Co-Researchers undertook training on Social Network Analysis. We also held our 4th whole project Steering Group meeting. 

Completed Life Course Interviews

We have now completed around 62 interviews across the project!

Next Stage of Interviews

We are currently in the process of finalising an interview schedule that we will use to gather insights from all relevant organisational stakeholders that provide services and support to individuals with learning disabilities and/or LGBTQ+ older adults.

Beginning Work Package 3

Now that we have begun Work Package 3, the initial data analysis process of transcripts from our interviews has begun. We shared some key insights at our Steering Group meeting on 23rd May. 

Outreach

Trip to Isle of Skye

Judith and Joe took a trip to the Isle of Skye, and were welcomed by a great group of people at a support organisation called Kyleakin Connections. During their time there, Joe and Judith were able to get four interviews done with people who have learning disabilities.

Dundee Inclusion Workshop

Joe and Judith went to the first in a series of inclusion workshops organised by Uppertunity called Destination Dundee. During this workshop, they were able to experience a little of what having certain disabilities is like such as deafness where they used noise-cancelling headphones and vision loss via eye mask. They also discussed with other participants the difficulties of creating inclusive spaces which can fit the needs of all.

Values into Action Scotland Event

Laura and Joe attended a relationship-building event organised by Values into Action Scotland for people with learning disabilities where they heard experiences from service users about the importance of relationships to their lives. The event was useful for networking.

Making Links with Scottish Government

Judith and Laura met with Amanda McCarren, the Learning Disabilities Policy Manager in the Scottish Government, to learn about current policy initiatives and share information about the IncludeAge project. The Scottish Government are keen for research like IncludeAge to help support the draft bill for Learning Disabilities, Autism and Neurodivergence (LDAN) as it goes through the Parliamentary process in the next two years, and to keep conversations going throughout the project.

Online Event for Scottish LGBT+ Organisations

As part of Work Package 5, Grace and Leon have organised a networking and idea-sharing online event for people from LGBT+ organisations on Wednesday 12th June 3.30-5.00. This event is one way of supporting recruitment for the project and making connections with wider communities. If you are from an LGBT+ organisation in Scotland, England or Wales, please consider signing up HERE.

IncludeAge Presentation at Canadian Conference

Mei Fang presented on the IncludeAge project on Thursday May 23rd at this year’s Friesen Conference hosted by the Department of Gerontology at Simon Fraser University in Canada. The presentation focused on presenting preliminary insights from the Lifecourse Interviews such as: Resilience in the Face of Adversity; Challenges of Visibility and Acceptance and Striving for Social Acceptance and Belonging. 

To enhance our social media presence, Mei has created an Info Byte about the presentation which can be found HERE. This is an example of what we can create using our computers via zoom or our smart phones using the camera function. Please feel free to share widely.

New Resources

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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