When my mom died, I felt achingly alone. It was an isolation that I had never experienced before. But as soon as I started attending Dinners… that loneliness abated. It was kind of a Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz moment — I was stepping out of a completely colorless world and back into something that was richer and more vibrant than before. I felt like I could start reclaiming my life again.
The Dinner Party is life-changing. Full stop.
— Alix, Philadelphia Dinner Partier
Your grief is yours alone, but that doesn’t mean you need to be alone in your grieving.
We spent 16 years supporting peer-led grief groups (Tables) meeting in-person and virtually, including affinity spaces for specific loss experiences and/or identities. We also built a Buddy System, where Dinner Party staff hand-matched grievers for a 1-to-1 connection. While we no longer run these programs, we have years of lessons and tools you can access as you self-organize the kind of support you crave.
New adult friendships are hard enough to find. Let alone when you’re grieving.
The Dinner Party continues to exist as a resource hub where young adult grievers can gain the tools to cultivate a community that helps each other navigate loss, life, and all the stuff in between. Because grief isn’t a problem that needs solving, but the loneliness that comes with it is.
Talia’s Table in L.A.
We conducted a survey about the experiences of Dinner Party Table participants.
In the fall of 2021 social scientists Dr. Laura Brady and Dr. Tobin Belzer surveyed 222 Dinner Partiers from 82 of our 120 Virtual Tables.
97%
recommend The Dinner Party to a friend (81% already had).
Here are some preliminary findings:
said their table allowed them to form relationships with people with whom they would not normally connect.
95%
92%
indicated that their table played an important role in their journey with grief.
84%
considered people at their table to be friends.
And, as a result of participating in The Dinner Party, the majority of respondents indicated they:
86%
Experienced a sense of belonging.
84%
Expanded their support networks.
Developed empathy for themselves.
70%
70%
Developed empathy for others.
2023 Impact Report
