StrongMinds’ Ten-Year Vision
As we celebrated our ten-year anniversary throughout 2023, StrongMinds staff and leadership came together to reflect on our achievements and to define a new globally focused vision and mission to guide us through the next ten years. Below is an excerpt from our ten-year vision statement.
In our first decade of operation (2013-2023), StrongMinds proved that a simple, cost-effective, and impactful depression treatment model can be implemented at scale by community members in Africa. We demonstrated to global mental health experts that depression treatment can be made widely accessible at the community level—the majority of our depression group leaders are volunteers with low levels of education and literacy.
Our radical expansion of depression treatment in Africa has only just begun. In the forthcoming decade of 2024-2034, StrongMinds will expand its mission to have a global remit, and we will fully embrace treating all people. We will add several more country offices in Africa during this period and embrace the responsibility to more aggressively diffuse our depression treatment approach to eventually reach every corner of the planet and every one of the hundreds of millions of people living with depression who do not have access to mental health care.
Our first step in this journey began in 2022 when we launched our work in the US through StrongMinds America, and further steps will be taken opportunistically in additional geographies. By the end of this decade, we will treat several million clients annually across the globe and have a widespread network of volunteers.
Our global expansion is about more than just expanding the treatment of clients. In parallel, we will vigorously strive to share and promote our learnings and ideas widely as we seek to be instrumental in strengthening the global mental health ecosystem and increasing the visibility of the importance of mental health.
By 2034, we will be the premier depression treatment thought leader and influencer, working at all levels to spur and foster a global mental health advocacy movement to build a stronger foundation for better mental health, including more funding, supportive laws, and less stigma.
Looking inside the StrongMinds organization from 2024-2034, we will continue to embrace the profound importance of our team and values. We will improve our internal systems and implementation to achieve operational excellence in everything we do, including managing our team’s performance and well-being according to world-class standards, and better training and support for community members to lead our depression groups. We will deepen our leadership bench within the organization and ensure we have the right talent to fuel this growth. We will explore innovative approaches to simplifying depression treatment, emphasizing technology and data.
We will be open-minded to exploring other mental health opportunities in addition to depression. New ways to continue to scale our model globally with partners, including exploring for-profit delivery models, will be considered.
In 2024-2034, we will make unforgettable strides to solving depression for everyone, everywhere.
New Mission Statement: StrongMinds radically expands mental health care for people with depression globally
