Research and development project to further develop Tell Stories for Life as a social activity of the EGV Foundation. 

Tell Stories for Life brings older people together in groups where the participants tell and listen to significant stories from the life of each person who is present. Life stories are the core of Tell Stories for Life groups. Talks deal with existential changes in life, such as ‘growing older’. Life stories contribute to strengthening one’s identity, and allow for new ways of understanding oneself to emerge. Life stories make a person visible. Our identities are established by means of life stories.

Through the stories revealed in this social context, the participants get to know each other and connect quite quickly. They become new witnesses to each other’s life stories and establish a new outlet for social relations that reaches beyond group participation. Tell Stories for Life offers a way out of social loneliness and isolation. 

The name and concept Tell Stories for Life ® belongs to the EGV Foundation. Psychologists Andreas Nikolajsen and Morten Hedelund developed the concept while doing their Master’s thesis in 2013.

During the fall of 2015, the EGV Foundation began to share information about the Tell Stories for Life concept for the benefit of future Tell Stories for Life group leaders. At the same time, a handbook in Danish was published. As of today, group leaders manage their own groups and receive supervision.

In May 2016, Andreas Nikolajsen finished a report in Danish on the start-up of Tell Stories for Life.

Tell Stories for Life group leader courses are available to councils and organizations at cost price as the activity is a social initiative aimed at fighting loneliness, created by the EGV Foundation. Read more about group leader courses.