We formed a strong international consortium for the CERV-2025-CITIZENS-CIV call. We are urgently looking for the LEAD partner from EU. 

Project Summary

Open Stories is an original, emotionally engaging initiative that invites young people—especially those from underrepresented and rural communities—to step into the role of storytellers, narrating their life journeys, decisions, and personal reflections as a form of civic engagement. By using the Living Library method, combined with career reflection and value-based dialogue, youth become living examples of democratic presence, resilience, and voice.

Each story is not just a memory, but a message: a personal take on freedom, dignity, solidarity, and the struggle for visibility and belonging. The stories are shared in libraries, schools, cultural hubs, and digitally, creating a pan-European mosaic of youth perspectives.

Main Objectives

• • Empower young people to tell their life stories through the lens of personal choice, values, and transformation
• • Bridge the gap between career orientation and civic awareness using a human-centered approach
• • Promote democratic participation and mutual understanding across cultures and generations
• • Create sustainable local and cross-border spaces for storytelling, dialogue, and reflection
• • Visibly anchor EU values in everyday lived experiences of youth, especially those on the margins

What Makes It Unique

• • Each young participant co-creates a ‘Living Story’ that blends personal narrative with a value they connect to (e.g. dignity, equality, solidarity)
• • Living Library sessions are enhanced with ‘Story Triggers’ – objects, places, or moments that hold symbolic weight in the storyteller’s life
• • Career guidance is reframed as ‘life reflection’ – young people map decisions that shaped them, not just qualifications
• • Cross-border 'Story Circles' – facilitated online exchanges between youth in different countries, based on thematic values, not geography
• • Creation of a 'Story Compass' toolkit – a simple reflective journal that youth can use to chart personal growth and civic presence

Key Activities

• • Training youth facilitators and career practitioners in reflective storytelling and value-based mentoring
• • Organising Living Library events in schools, libraries, and civic centers
• • Running storytelling labs using the Story Compass method
• • Launching cross-border Story Circles (online) on themes such as 'Freedom', 'Belonging', 'Voice', and 'Courage'
• • Publishing a digital and printed collection of stories and learning – 'Open Stories of European Youth'

Link to EU Values

Rather than teaching EU values abstractly, Open Stories enables young people to live and express them. Every personal story becomes a testimony to one or more European values—freedom in leaving a toxic environment, dignity in saying no, equality in reclaiming voice, solidarity in helping others. These values are shared, heard, and honored through dialogue, not lectures.

Partner Profile Sought

We are seeking a lead partner and co-applicants from EU Member States or associated countries with experience in:
- Youth work, inclusion, civic participation or community dialogue
- Creative facilitation, storytelling, or artistic methods for social change
- Career orientation or reflective education models
- Grassroots work with marginalized or rural youth
- Hosting local events or digital exchanges on civic topics

Please message to inbox if interested. 

 Entrepreneuriat et PME

 Erasmus+

 Jeunes travailleurs

 Coopération interrégionale

 Société numérique