Virtual EngAge

Our Aim

Virtual-EngAge examines the potential of everyday communication devices to support the maintenance, development and re-purposing of retirement association groups for social connectivity, critical information communication and advocacy in virtual environments.

In doing so, Virtual-EngAge hopes to inform the development of a technology mediated participation platform for older people. Virtual-EngAge is a collaboration with a nationally representative membership-based older adult organisation, Active Retirement Ireland (ARI) and its local Active Retirement Associations (ARAs), and a series of technology partners.

Objectives

1. Capture current state-of-the-art multi-disciplinary and intersectoral knowledge concerning technology-driven virtual participation platforms in later life
2. Illuminate the context of a national active retirement association for technology application, exploring the internal communication strategies (including the use of everyday technology), and the external perception of the association to support and represent older people, prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic
3. Examine the daily engagement routines of members of the association in relation to the three spheres of social connectivity, critical information access and dissemination, and advocacy, and the role of technology in supporting this engagement
4. Assess the broader social discourses and the barriers facing members, and potential members, to acceptance and use of technology for collective forms of virtual engagement in social connectivity, crisis communication and advocacy
5. Triangulate and translate the findings into coordinated and workable technology strategies and scenarios for the national retirement association, and in-depth design criteria and operational wire frames for technology transfer and engagement

Partners & Collaborators

Outputs

Virtual-EngAge Translation Report Series

• Digitally-Supported Communication for Older People’s Grassroots Organisations
• Digitally-Supported Engagement: Pathways for Individuals and Groups
• Development Considerations and Design Criteria for a Digital Age

Virtual-EngAge Policy Brief Series

• Digitally-supported communication for older people’s grassroots organisations
• Digital Technology Design and Development for Inclusive Ageing and Engaged  
• Digitally-Supported Engagement: Securing Inclusion in Later Life

Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

Carroll, B., Walsh, K., O’Neill, M., Poli, A., Vogel, C., Moreau, E., (2025), Older adult grassroots organisations supporting just transitions in multifaceted engagement: digital and organisational transformations, Ageing and Society, 2025, 45 (12): 2675-2701. doi:10.1017/S0144686X25100238

Walsh, K., Joseph, P., Herbert, A., O’Neill, M., & Vogel, C., (2025), Digital technology design in ageing and engaged societies: challenges in inclusion and context, Behaviour & Information Technology, 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929X.2025.2584205

Impacts

• Systematically review existing international knowledge on life-course and structural determinants of subjective positive health, in community contexts, for marginalised and vulnerable groups of the older adult population;
• Contextualise and chart social and primary care provision for OTOH individuals in Ireland, identifying potential individual- and structural-level risk factors for health inequalities and health inequities, informal practices for addressing such disparities, and key on-the-ground knowledge deficits;
• Capture the lived experiences, expectations and needs of a diverse group of OTOH individuals, unpacking the role of individuals’ life events and experiences, and societal and institutional practices and norms in the construction of positive health biographies;
• Facilitate and advance the voice of OTOH individuals to highlight ‘insider’ perspectives on meanings of home and successful strategies for securing positive health biographies, and adapting to challenges with respect to HC utilisation;
• Harnessing learning from OTOH individuals, develop policy recommendations and practice-relevant tools to inform the development and implementation of forthcoming older adult HC structures, helping to ensure their and applicability to the needs and preferences of OTOH individuals.