LIBRARIES would not normally encourage young people to start shouting about things.

But a new project being launched tomorrow and rolled out across the county aims to do exactly that.

Find Your Voice wants to promote debate among 13- to 21-year-olds to become active citizens in their communities and take more of an interest in libraries.

Tomorrow at The Story Museum young people will be able to sign up to the scheme, which will get going in September.

It will provide ways for young people to enter into debate, take part in the democratic process, engage in social change, talk about issues important to them and express themselves.

Project manager Euton Daley said he had already seen interest in the project.

He added: “The project aims to engage people to start thinking about democracy and their rights.

“It’s about asking them what they want to stand up for and using historical moments to ask what they agree and disagree with.

“We are looking to work with about 150 young people for quite a long period of time.

“They will take part in something that is part of a national campaign called the LiberTeas where at 3pm on Sunday young people will sit down, have tea and debate.”

The project comes after Oxfordshire County Council’s library service successfully bid for £96,000 from Arts Council England to help fund it.

Across 43 Oxfordshire libraries, six projects will be launched and participants will be able to visit the Houses of Parliament as part of the scheme.

Jillian Southwell, Head of Oxfordshire County Council’s Library Service, said: “Find Your Voice is part of an initiative to use libraries as cultural venues in addition to all of the things for which they are already known and loved.

“We hope this will be a new way of attracting young people in to libraries.

“We hope that this ground-breaking project will become a national template for libraries working with arts and cultural organisations and young people.”

Lauren Harding-Brown, 16, from Headington, said she found the idea of the project interesting.

The student, who is sitting her exams at Headington School, said: “I was studying in the library and I got told about what the project was about.

“I found out that it was about about it sounded really interesting, a good thing to get involved in.”

The Find Your Voice launch event will run at The Story Museum tomorrow between 2pm and 4pm.