When someone is struggling with depression, we often focus on what’s going wrong. What’s happening with their mental health? What treatment do they need? What behaviours need to change? What support can we provide? These are important questions. But I wonder if we’re missing some equally important ones.
Who do you belong to?
Do you believe you have something valuable to contribute?
Do you have something meaningful to look forward to?
Because what if some of the suffering we see in our communities isn’t only about what’s happening inside people, but also about what is missing around them?
Depression and the loss of connection
The best book I’ve ever read on depression is Lost Connections, where Johann Hari explores the relationship between depression, anxiety, and the ways we’ve become disconnected from essential human needs. His argument challenges us to look beyond the individual and consider the environments in which people are trying to live.
Depression is complex. Biology, genetics, trauma, life circumstances, and many other factors can contribute. Medication and professional mental health treatment can be essential, but he draws attention to something we don’t talk about nearly enough: the role of disconnection.
He explores several forms of disconnection, including disconnection from meaningful work, other people, meaningful values, and a hopeful future. Three of these ideas have profoundly influenced the work we’re doing through Bravely Connected Communities and our Dream Academy program.
Connection to people.
Connection to meaningful work.
Connection to purpose.
I believe understanding these three needs could change how we approach mental health, education, leadership, and community development.
1. We need people who remind us we belong
Loneliness isn’t simply the absence of people. It’s the absence of meaningful connection. You can sit in a classroom full of students, work in a busy office, attend church every Sunday, or have hundreds of social media connections and still feel profoundly alone, because belonging isn’t about how many people surround you. It’s about whether anyone truly sees you.
Does someone notice when you’re missing?
Does anyone know your story?
Is there somewhere you can show up without having to prove yourself?
Research consistently links loneliness and social isolation with poorer mental health, including depression. And the relationship can become a painful cycle. Depression can make people withdraw, while withdrawal can deepen their isolation. Yet our response to loneliness is often to tell people to get out more, join something, or make friends.
But what if connection isn’t something we can simply tell people to find?
What if belonging is something we need to intentionally build?
This is why I believe so deeply in creating spaces where people can do meaningful things together. Sometimes connection doesn’t begin with a deep conversation.
It begins while baking together.
Creating something.
Working on an idea.
Helping a neighbour.
When people have something meaningful to do together, relationships often begin to form naturally, and suddenly, someone who felt invisible has a place.
A role.
People who know their name.
A reason to show up.
2. We need to know we have something valuable to contribute
The second connection the book explores is meaningful work, and I think we’ve misunderstood what this means. Meaningful work isn’t necessarily about employment, a career, or earning money. It’s about having opportunities to use our abilities in ways that matter.
To create.
To solve problems.
To help.
To contribute.
To experience the satisfaction of knowing our efforts made a difference.
Imagine spending years being known primarily by your struggles. Maybe you’ve experienced mental health challenges, disability, unemployment, addiction, or difficulties in school. People have identified your needs. They’ve created support plans. They’ve told you what you need to improve, and while many of these supports are incredibly important, what happens when nobody asks what you’re good at? What happens when you’re always the recipient of help but rarely invited to contribute? I think we underestimate how deeply that can affect someone’s dignity and sense of identity.
There is something powerful about discovering:
I have something this world needs.
Not because our worth depends on productivity. It doesn’t, but because contributing allows us to express the value we already have. I think about how often we build programs around what’s wrong with people instead of what is strong in them. What if we became just as curious about their strengths as we are about their struggles? What if instead of only asking, “What support do you need?” we also asked:
What do you love doing?
What are you naturally good at?
What problems do you notice?
What would you love to create?
What do you have to offer your community?
These questions can open doors that people didn’t even know existed.
3. We need something meaningful to move toward
The third connection is purpose. This one is especially close to my heart. I think about how many people are simply surviving their days. Wake up. Get through school or work. Manage responsibilities. Deal with stress. Go to bed.
Repeat.
Somewhere along the way, the ability to dream begins to disappear, and when life has been particularly difficult, imagining a different future can feel almost impossible. I see this as an important part of the conversation around young people’s mental health.
We spend so much energy trying to prevent negative outcomes.
Don’t use drugs.
Don’t drop out of school.
Don’t make bad choices.
Don’t get into trouble.
Of course, we want young people to be safe, but here’s the question I keep coming back to: What are we inviting them INTO?
What are we helping them imagine?
What possibilities are we putting in front of them?
What strengths are we helping them discover?
What if helping someone move away from harmful choices also means helping them discover something meaningful to move toward?
Purpose doesn’t have to mean finding one grand calling that changes the world. Sometimes purpose looks like learning to bake. Starting a little business. Creating art. Growing a garden. Helping a neighbour. Organizing a community event. Discovering something you love and finding a way to share it with others. Purpose often emerges through participation. Through experimenting. Through taking small risks. Through discovering that something you do can make a difference.
Sometimes the first step toward a hopeful future is simply having someone believe there’s more inside you than you’ve had the opportunity to discover.
This is why we created Dream Academy
These three connections are at the heart of why we created Dream Academy through my non profit Bravely Connected Communities. On the surface, Dream Academy might look like an entrepreneurship or community leadership program. Participants discover ideas, develop skills, create products, explore opportunities, and learn how to share their dreams with others, but underneath all of that, something much more important is happening.
We’re creating opportunities for people to experience belonging, discover their strengths, and build something meaningful. We don’t begin by asking people to prove what they can do. We begin with curiosity.
What do you love?
What matters to you?
What are you good at?
What would you love to try?
What do you wish existed in your neighbourhood?
And then we help people take one small step. Someone who loves baking begins exploring the possibility of selling at a community market. Someone who enjoys art discovers that their creativity has value. Someone who has always wanted to bring people together begins imagining an event. Someone who has never considered themselves a leader finds the courage to stand in front of a room and share an idea.
And they don’t have to do it alone. They have people encouraging them, learning alongside them, and celebrating their progress. They begin to experience three things:
Connection: I belong somewhere.
Contribution: I have something valuable to offer.
Purpose: There are possibilities worth exploring.
Dream Academy isn’t a treatment for depression, nor is it a replacement for mental health care, but it is our way of creating some of the conditions that support mental well-being, dignity, agency, and hope, because we believe people need more than help surviving their struggles.
They also deserve opportunities to discover what makes life meaningful.
What if we changed the way we build communities?
Here’s where I think this conversation gets exciting. What if we stopped seeing mental health as something that only belongs in a therapist’s office? Professional care is essential. But the conditions that support well-being are also shaped by our schools, workplaces, churches, neighbourhoods, and relationships.
What if schools became as curious about students’ strengths as they are about their challenges?
What if workplaces cared not only about productivity, but also about whether people experience meaning and belonging?
What if community organizations stopped seeing people only as recipients of services and began recognizing them as contributors?
What if churches became places where people could discover their gifts, find meaningful relationships, and participate in something bigger than themselves?
What if neighbourhoods became places where everyone had something to offer and everyone had somewhere to belong?
I wonder how much could change? Not because connection, contribution, and purpose magically eliminate depression, but because they are important parts of creating environments where people can flourish.
And here’s what I love most.
We don’t have to wait for another program, another professional, or another funding opportunity to begin. We can start with the people right in front of us. We can notice someone’s strengths. We can invite someone to participate. We can create opportunities for people to contribute. We can make room for someone who hasn’t yet found their place.
Sometimes the most powerful invitation we can offer is: “I see something in you. Have you ever thought about trying this?”
What are we helping people reconnect to?
I want to leave you with three questions. Think about your children, your students, your employees, your neighbours, or the people in your community.
Do they have people they feel connected to?
Do they have opportunities to contribute something meaningful?
Do they have something they’re looking forward to?
And then ask yourself: What could I do to help create one of those opportunities? Maybe one of the most important things we can do for someone’s well-being isn’t simply helping them manage what is difficult. Maybe it’s also helping them rediscover what makes life worth participating in. A place to belong. Something meaningful to contribute. A future they can begin to imagine. That’s the heart behind Dream Academy. Not because everyone needs to become an entrepreneur. Not because everyone needs a big dream, but because everyone deserves the opportunity to discover that they matter, that they have something to offer, and that their story is still being written.
What if we stopped only asking what’s wrong with people and started creating communities that help them discover what’s strong in them? I believe that’s where real transformation can begin, and I believe it’s how we build stronger, more connected neighbourhoods.
Help us bring more dreams to life! Through the Ogden Dream Fund, we’re creating opportunities for people to discover their strengths, build meaningful connections, and turn their dreams into reality. We’re in the running for $10,000 through Field Law’s Community Fund, and your vote can help make it happen! Vote for the Ogden Dream Fund here! Every vote brings us closer to building a community where everyone belongs and has something meaningful to contribute.
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