Background
Foróige, Ireland's National Youth Development Organisation, runs GoVirtual, a digital youth-work programme that uses virtual reality to reach young people facing social, geographic or emotional barriers to connection. Music Making in a Virtual World was a pilot under GoVirtual, bringing together Foróige's GoVirtual and GoSonic teams, GRETB Music Generation Galway City, and Tusla family services to give isolated young people the tools to create, collaborate and be heard.
The deployment
Young people met inside shared, immersive VR spaces to explore sound, make beats and build rhythms together without needing to be in the same room — or even the same town. Facilitators, youth workers and parents supported participants as they collaborated in virtual worlds, bridging the gap between technology and creativity, and between isolation and belonging.
Hardware and software
The pilot used two consumer social-VR applications:
- Rec Room — a multiplayer social-VR platform where participants met as avatars in shared immersive rooms.
- PatchWorld — a VR music-making app used to build beats, sounds and rhythms collaboratively.
The source material does not name the specific VR headset used.
Outcomes
Despite occasional technical glitches and attendance challenges, participants reported new skills, greater confidence and a stronger sense of being seen and valued — many did not want the final session to end. The pilot also opened onward pathways: one young person moved on to explore employment support through VR, another joined a face-to-face music group in Galway, and another joined the Foróige GoVirtual youth group The Alternate Spacers.
Funding
Foróige's GoVirtual programme, under which this pilot ran, is grant-funded by Rethink Ireland and The Tomar Trust.
