Healing Divisions Around the Table

Groups of 6 to 8 people participate in a series of meals organized on a regular basis throughout the year (one meal per month) to build connections that transcend differences.

To strengthen social cohesion

One city, many countries

Nyon has never been more international, and many of its residents have never felt so alone. In this city, four out of ten people hold a foreign passport; we come from 141 countries, and many of us live far from the family and longtime friends who once surrounded us. We have clubs, happy hours, hiking groups, and international associations—an abundance of social opportunities. And yet, you can attend every event in the city without ever truly being known. Interaction isn’t the same as connection. An activity isn’t a relationship. This project is about intentionally learning to build relationships—even when it’s difficult.

The Project

We will recruit participants who will gather in groups of 6 to 8 people to eat together and practice the art of building relationships. The groups are open to anyone aged 16 and older (with parental consent for minors), primarily from Nyon, with a limited number of spots available for residents of neighboring towns. We will form the groups based on registrations, arranging participants to maximize diversity within each group: country of origin, age, gender, marital status, parental status, sexual orientation, and years lived in the region. We are not creating circles of friends or neighborhoods. Our design principle requires creating enough diversity so that everyone can practice building relationships.

A single, recurring activity: the shared meal. Each group meets once a month for a potluck—twelve meals a year, where everyone brings a dish, with the invitation to bring something that reflects who you are and where you come from. Food does what it has always done: it creates an open space for connection between people. It is within this welcoming space that a purposeful program will unfold.

Table hosts: Each table is led by a host or hostess—a participant who welcomes everyone, sets the pace, and guides others through the format. The host or hostess is trained and supported throughout the year by the project manager, and is thanked at the end of the year with a gift certificate redeemable at local businesses.

Six questions that build connections: Six monthly meals are structured around carefully chosen questions, designed to ensure that everyone is seen—What is the difference between the person you were in your home country and the person you are today? What do you carry within you that no one ever asks about? When was the last time you truly felt at home? – held in a format whose rules are based on the six relational skills: one voice at a time, listening without trying to fix things, staying on topic even when it becomes uncomfortable.

Six questions that address divisive issues: Six monthly meals introduce topics that divide families, neighbors, and cities—AI, family, climate, migration—through a series of questions designed to reveal everyone’s positions, as well as the universal needs underlying the disagreement: to protect, to belong, to matter. For example, on climate: “Is climate change an emergency, an exaggeration, or something in between? Who is responsible for taking action, and what do you honestly think of people who see things differently?” ” Then the questions bring to light what lies beneath those positions: “What way of life are you afraid of losing? What are you afraid your grandchildren will never experience?” The meal concludes by identifying the need common to all the answers.

The Underlying Problem

In Switzerland, about 38% of people over the age of 15 report feeling lonely—an even higher percentage among people with a migration background. Our social groups organize what we do together, but almost never how we are together. Conversation therefore remains superficial: the weather, schools, the next outing—while what really matters to people remains unspoken. And when friction or conflict arises—as it always does—most groups have no way to resolve it. People rarely argue; they simply disappear from the group.

And loneliness isn’t the only divide. Nyon, like most cities, is riddled with divisions: locals and expats, homeowners and renters, French speakers and English speakers, Protestants and Catholics, conservatives and progressives. These divisions rarely come to a head; over time, they can harden.

The vineyards surrounding Nyon offer a lesson that applies here: when phylloxera devastated Europe’s vineyards a century and a half ago, what saved them was grafting onto a different rootstock—resilience was born from the union of what was different, at the root. This project begins by deliberately cultivating a root system composed of the rich diversity of cultures already present in Nyon.

Relationships capable of withstanding drought and disease are not built during a crisis; they are grafted long before the trial, in ordinary seasons, around ordinary tables. This is what this project builds: relationships that make room for difference, robust enough for a city to rely on when the difficult season arrives.

This project also builds a relational architecture. Relationships are neither a matter of chance nor of chemistry. They rest on a precise relational infrastructure, which is learned by practicing presence, listening without defensiveness, speaking truthfully, and making amends after a breakdown.

Why Now

The coming decade will demand more from Nyon, not less. Swiss climate scenarios predict a sharp increase in heatwave days and tropical nights in the Lake Geneva region; the tiger mosquito has already arrived in the canton; and AI is visibly transforming the labor market on which our residents depend. Cities do not face such changes as administrative entities—they face them as networks of relationships. A city whose residents know how to maintain genuine connections through discomfort and difference is a city capable of adapting together.

About Us · Calendar · Budget

We are three residents of Nyon: Megan Warren, a leadership coach; Julie Pluies Raulet, a socio-anthropological researcher; and Tim Eaton, a software developer.

Participation is free and open to anyone aged 16 and older (parental consent required for minors)—both Swiss and international residents—with recruitment taking place through neighborhood associations, solidarity-based neighborhoods, international community groups, and City channels.

Nov.–Dec. 2026: setup and recruitment.

Jan.–Dec. 2027: Monthly group dinners.

Dec. 2027: Final assessment and public report.

15,000

All neighborhoods in Nyon

Connectors