Background
Foróige is an Irish nonprofit youth organisation working with over 50,000 young people each year. Its GoVirtual programme is part of the Foróige Go digital skills umbrella, using virtual reality to reach young people who cannot access face-to-face youth services, whether due to geographic remoteness, disability, or social exclusion. The programme was funded by Rethink Ireland through its Scaling Education Fund, and by The Tomar Trust, running from 2023 to the end of 2025.
The deployment
In County Mayo, Foróige GoVirtual co-created a weekly VR group with the HSE Community Disability Network Team (CDNT) Mayo, targeting autistic teenagers isolated by geography, social barriers, or both. Participants joined sessions from their own homes, using Meta Quest headsets to enter a private, custom-built GoVirtual hub inside Rec Room, a multiplayer social VR platform. Sessions were facilitated by Tom Rickard, VR Development Officer at Foróige GoVirtual, alongside CDNT staff.
Format and activities
Each session followed a consistent weekly structure: arrival in the shared virtual hub, icebreakers, team games and creative activities, finishing with an informal virtual social. The predictability of routine was central to supporting autistic participants. The virtual environment offered a lower-pressure social context than face-to-face settings, with parents reporting that conversation flowed more naturally and confidence grew more quickly in VR than in comparable in-person settings.
Outcomes
Parents described significant transformations. Young people who had previously found peer socialisation difficult were forming real friendships within the group. The virtual setting provided an intimacy and comfort that in-person provision had not matched for many participants. Engagement opened pathways to other opportunities, and the programme gave participants a sense of belonging that extended beyond each session.
