Nightline and SKEMA Kare: support systems for students

Published on May 24, 2023

Youssef Rais, a student in the Master in Management (PGE) dual-degree programme, is the president of the Lille branch of the Nightline association, which partners with SKEMA Business School and the Open Mind SKEMA student association. His mission is to improve the mental health of young people, acting at both the individual and collective level through listening platforms, alongside the SKEMA KARE initiative. He provides its details in this interview.

Youssef, can you tell us what Nightline is?

Nightline is an association created in 2016 with the aim of improving the mental health of students. To do this, we work with academic partners such as SKEMA and CROUS, and also with the student association network, as is the case at SKEMA where we work with the Open Mind association specialising in the field of mental health. We regularly organise awareness days on the campuses of the cities where we are based. Today, Nightline is present in six cities: Paris, Angers, Nantes, Toulouse, Lyon, Saclay, and Lille, since 2020. What we want is to provide a listening and compassionate ear to students.

How do you help students?

We start from the principle that a student in difficulty will find it easier to talk to one of his or her peers. This is why at Nightline, we have helplines open seven days a week, from 9 pm to 2:30 am. On the other end of the line, there are students trained by Nightline's experienced listeners.

Each city has its own telephone line and chat platform. The training of the listeners is based on several major principles. The first is obviously anonymity, neither the caller nor the volunteer exchange their identities during the call. The second point is confidentiality. We do not disclose outside what might be said during the exchange. The third point: non-judgement. We strive to judge neither positively nor negatively the situations we encounter. Finally, the last point is non-directivity. Indeed, we do not give any advice, we are not health professionals. Of course, we redirect callers to our website or to the competent emergency services, if the situation requires it.

How are Nightline listeners supported by the association?

The students in charge of talking to the callers have meetings with psychologists employed by Nightline. The presence of volunteers at these appointments is mandatory and allows the listeners to talk about striking calls with health professionals. These meetings are essential as they enable the students to be psychologically supported in their listening approach. Nightline's budget is 2 million euros, and the association is funded through partnerships with academic institutions, such as SKEMA.

The SKEMA Kare system

SKEMA Kare is a support initiative of SKEMA Business School. SKEMA Kare's referents connect students with competent interlocutors and services to deal with everyday issues: isolation, depression, health, discrimination, harassment, and disability. SKEMA Kare is also available via a dedicated platform where each student can quickly find contacts for each issue.

Contact for SKEMA Kare referents:

In France: