DMAX Foundation

When 18-year-old Dan Maxwell took his own life in 2013, his parents, supported by Dan’s friends, founded DMAX Foundation to develop student-led mental health DMAX Clubs on college campuses. When Dan was struggling, he often said that he didn’t feel like he could talk to his friends, and that no one could understand how he was feeling. Dan’s family and friends didn’t want other young adults to go through their struggles alone.

DMAX Foundation provides college students with trusting and inclusive spaces, where they can tell the stories of their lives, identities and experiences without judgment. Over the past 10 years, DMAX Foundation has supported young adults in their mental health through live and virtual programming, especially through our student-led mental health DMAX Clubs on college campuses. At DMAX Club meetings, students support each other in their struggles, as well as serve the broader campus by hosting events to spread mental health awareness, normalize mental health storytelling, and overcome stigmas and taboos around mental health.

DMAX Foundation’s  mission is to create connections and conversations that matter to strengthen mental health and emotional well-being for young people. Our DMAX Clubs represent our signature program which establishes and supports student-led mental health Clubs on college campuses.  DMAX Clubs use a "Friends Helping Friends" model that equips young adults to share their feelings, experiences and identities with each other enabling them to recognize they are not alone in their struggles and feel supported.

The Foundation also provides events such as “DMAX Students Speak!”, and “DMAX Days Out” for its DMAX students, and a Philadelphia Region-based annual Main Educational Event for students and the adult community.  On April 23, DMAX is hosting Conversations Conquer Loneliness to focus on the impact of the Loneliness Epidemic on young people and solutions for it.