Kintsugi Heroes
A Generous Life of Advocacy and Community for Men's Mental Health with Filipe Gama e Silva
Filipe Gama de Silva
A CEO learns that belonging, not programs, stops male suicide. Now he is building it at scale.
Kintsugi Studio
Kintsugi Heroes
Filipe Gama de Silva
A CEO learns that belonging, not programs, stops male suicide. Now he is building it at scale.
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Filipe Gama de Silva grew up in Brisbane, the son of Portuguese immigrants who moved to Australia because his mother loved Skippy the Bush Kangaroo. Dyslexia forced him to get comfortable being uncomfortable, to stand up and read aloud in class despite ridicule, and to learn that he could survive it. At 17, he saw an orphanage in Cambodia collapse when its main funder went broke, and realised that good people doing good work still fail without the business acumen to keep the doors open. That moment changed everything. He chose the unglamorous work of keeping organisations alive, the behind-the-scenes role that doesn't get applause but makes everything else possible.
Filipe worked in private health, in statutory out-of-home care, and in the commercial sector, always learning how to plan, communicate, and execute at scale. Six months ago, he became CEO of Mentoring Men. In his first months, he listened hard to mentors, mentees, and the community, and kept hearing one word: belonging. Men needed a judgment-free space where they could be their true selves without pretending. He discovered that the problem isn't that men won't seek help; it's that the barriers are so complicated that it's hard for anyone to navigate. Belonging is what changes that.
Now Filipe's vision is to scale belonging across the country, and to shift what masculinity means. Strength is not control or pushing through alone. It's vulnerability. It's talking about what's on your mind. It's taking charge of your own wellbeing. He's building that culture through weekly men's breakfasts and peer support gatherings where men show up, support each other, and invite others into the fold. He carries the weight of knowing he's the custodian of a community, not just a service. That burden keeps him honest.
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