Today, the name and concept Tell Stories for Life® belong to the EGV Foundation. Psychologists Andreas Nikolajsen and Morten Hedelund developed the concept while doing their Master’s thesis in 2013. Back then it was a EGV-funded project.

During the autumn of 2015, the EGV Foundation began to share information on Tell Stories for Life for the benefit of future Tell Stories for Life group leaders. At the same time, a Tell Stories for Life handbook was made available. As of today, group leaders manage their own groups and receive supervision.

Tell Stories for Life brings older people together for group talks where they tell and listen to life stories that have been significant in the lives of each individual present. Life stories are the core of Tell Stories for Life groups. Talks deal with existential changes in life such as ‘growing older’. Stories about lives lived contribute to preserving old concepts of who we are and allow for new ways of understanding ourselves to emerge. The stories make us visible. Our identities are established by means of life stories.

Through stories and the social context, the participants connect. 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.

In May 2016, Andreas Nikolajsen finished a report on the start-up of Tell Stories for Life. The report is applicable to the present project and as such delivers quality support to it.