The Yuva Ekta Foundation returned to the Jaipur Literature Festival with the 13^th edition of the Youth Outreach Program. This year, 55 young adults explored “Kahaaniyon ki Rahasyamayi Duniya - the Mysterious World of Stories". With our theme this year we pose a question: with a dominant narrative trying to define our lives, do we run an acute risk of losing our own stories? Stories of courage we have grown up with, stories that have inspired and transformed us, stories being created at this very moment! A program that began in 2007, has now managed to reach out to more than 20,000 students, young adults, educators, community members and JLF visitors through the years. Working at the intersection of youth and governance, this program looks at integrating young adults from urban and rural backgrounds through Expressive Arts. The topics covered each year are well aligned with the larger intent of the Festival. The idea is to enhance the scope of democratic participation among the youth, through art, culture, and literature. We have covered issues of crucial social importance like 'Hands on Habitat: Environment and Sustainable Development' (2008),  'Building Bridges: Social Justice and Equity' (2011), 'Freedom of Expression' (2014) and 'Naya Nazaria: Moving Towards Gender Justice' (2015). We believe in encouraging young minds to delve deeper into themselves, undertake a journey of self-discovery and understand where their 'self' stands in relation to 'others'. Our focus on issues like ‘Breakthrough: Harnessing Emotional Intelligence to Lead Change' (2018) and ‘Boundaries: Understanding and Redefining Safe Spaces’ (2019) are examples of that endeavour. The workshops have been capped by Interactive Theatre performances inspired by techniques like Forum Theatre and Theatre of the Oppressed. These performances are real-life stories, woven together through the intensive workshop process. Over the last 5 years, we have performed 43 times across schools, communities and JLF Festival Grounds. Our Yuva Ekta participants go through the ardent task of performing a half-an-hour piece twice a day and following up each performance by an audience interaction. The fervour has only increased over the years. In the last three years, we've moved out from the Festival grounds, to sensitise students across Jaipur, and communities on the outskirts of Jaipur. More than 750 students have directly benefited from our workshops. These students come from a diversity of socio-economic and cultural spaces, traversing the length and breadth of diversity in this country. Over the last 12 years, we have worked with more than 11 different private and government schools in the city of Jaipur alone. In addition to that, we have also managed to reach out to 10 not-for-profit organisations, working with vulnerable communities in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and New Delhi. The popularity of our workshop spaces has grown tremendously with Jaipur schools asking for more slots and increase in participation. While simultaneously, our NGO partners have started sending more members of the deprived communities because of the exposure it offers. This year in 2020, 90% of our participants from rural areas are women. We’ve also been tracking demographic trends and attitudinal shifts through periodic surveys and have found that the female participation has only grown over the years. More so, participants leave the workshop space as more sensitised and aware, not only of their own emotions, but also towards the world around. We hope to keep building on this exercise, and reach out to more young adults in the years to come. This year, we managed to reach out to 4500 school children, young adults, community members and festival visitors in Jaipur. In a total of 10 performances, we performed once in Bassi Village on January 25, before moving to Samvad on the prestigious JLF Grounds on January 26, 2020. In this effort, we co-authored and co-created lots of original and interesting stories.