SOS Amitié is a French federation of several regional

charitable organizations A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, Religion, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definitio ...

aimed at providing emotional support to anyone in emotional distress, struggling to cope, or at risk of suicide throughout

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, often through their telephone helpline. This helps people with their mental state and how they cope with life, this helps them regain their happiness and helps them fight off the worries and support them in every way in form of their state of their personal life.

History

The first association was created in

in 1960 in

Boulogne-Billancourt Boulogne-Billancourt (; often colloquially called simply Boulogne, until 1924 Boulogne-sur-Seine, ) is a wealthy and prestigious Communes of France, commune in the western suburbs of Paris, France, located from the Kilometre zero, centre of Paris ...

, following the meeting of philanthropist Georges Lillaz with Pastor Jean Casalis and his wife, the first listeners of the SOS Amitié

Île-de-France The Île-de-France (; ; ) is the most populous of the eighteen regions of France, with an official estimated population of 12,271,794 residents on 1 January 2023. Centered on the capital Paris, it is located in the north-central part of the cou ...

website, choosing secularism in 1970. It received 7,500 calls in the first year. The federation was recognized as a public utility by a decree on February 15, 1967. This concept of

charitable organization A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, Religion, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definitio ...

originated in

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

under the name "

The Samaritans Samaritans is a registered charitable organisation, charity aimed at providing emotional support to anyone in emotional distress, struggling to cope or at risk of suicide throughout the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland, Ireland, often thr ...

" following the suicide of a 14-year-old English girl who thought she had contracted a

sexually transmitted infection A sexually transmitted infection (STI), also referred to as a sexually transmitted disease (STD) and the older term venereal disease (VD), is an infection that is Transmission (medicine), spread by Human sexual activity, sexual activity, e ...

when she was actually

menstruating The menstrual cycle is a series of natural changes in hormone production and the structures of the uterus and ovaries of the female reproductive system that makes pregnancy possible. The ovarian cycle controls the production and release of eggs ...

. Reverend

Chad Varah Edward Chad Varah (12 November 1911 – 8 November 2007) was an English Anglican priest and social activist from England. In 1953, he founded the Samaritans, the world's first crisis hotline, to provide telephone support to those contemplating ...

then placed an advertisement in

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

on November 2, 1953: "Before you

commit suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Risk factors for suicide include mental disorders, physical disorders, and substance abuse. Some suicides are Impulsivity, impulsive acts driven by Stress (biology), stress (su ...

, call me at M.A.N. 90.00", inventing the world's first telephone listening service to help those contemplating

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Risk factors for suicide include mental disorders, physical disorders, and substance abuse. Some suicides are impulsive acts driven by stress (such as from financial or ac ...

, the desperate, isolated individuals, and anyone who felt unheard by others.

Operation

Now receiving over 700,000 calls per year, with just over a tenth of them in the

Paris region Paris () is the capital and largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the fourth-most populous city in the European Union and the 30th most densely popul ...

, more than 1,700

volunteers Volunteering is an elective and freely chosen act of an individual or group giving their time and labor, often for community service. Many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work, such as medicine, education, or emergenc ...

take turns

24/7 In commerce and industry, 24/7 or 24-7 service (usually pronounced "twenty-four seven") is service that is available at any time and usually, every day. An alternate orthography for the numerical part includes 24×7 (usually pronounced "twenty- ...

, 365 days a year to ensure continuous listening (approximately 400,000 hours). The service is free, anonymous, confidential, and the dialogue is non-directive. Independent of any

political Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...

religious movement Various sociological classifications of religious movements have been proposed by scholars. In the sociology of religion, the most widely used classification is the church-sect typology. The typology is differently construed by different socio ...

, the

organization An organization or organisation (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English; American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), see spelling differences) is an legal entity, entity—such as ...

operates thanks to subsidies from public authorities,

donation A donation is a gift for Charity (practice), charity, humanitarian aid, or to benefit a cause. A donation may take various forms, including money, alms, Service (economics), services, or goods such as clothing, toys, food, or vehicles. A donati ...

s from

individual An individual is one that exists as a distinct entity. Individuality (or self-hood) is the state or quality of living as an individual; particularly (in the case of humans) as a person unique from other people and possessing one's own needs or g ...

s or

entities An entity is something that exists as itself. It does not need to be of material existence. In particular, abstractions and legal fictions are usually regarded as entities. In general, there is also no presumption that an entity is animate, or ...

, and

patronage Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, art patronage refers to the support that princes, popes, and other wealthy and influential people ...

. Fifty local

s, spread across

metropolitan France Metropolitan France ( or ), also known as European France (), is the area of France which is geographically in Europe and chiefly comprises #Hexagon, the mainland, popularly known as "the Hexagon" ( or ), and Corsica. This collective name for the ...

, including eight in the Île-de-France region, are grouped within the Federation SOS Amitié

On the Internet

In addition to telephone listening, SOS Amitié has established an online listening service via

instant messaging Instant messaging (IM) technology is a type of synchronous computer-mediated communication involving the immediate ( real-time) transmission of messages between two or more parties over the Internet or another computer network. Originally involv ...

in a

web interface In the industrial design field of human–computer interaction, a user interface (UI) is the space where interactions between humans and machines occur. The goal of this interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine fro ...

, following the same rules and ethics as over the

phone A telephone, colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that enables two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most ...

. A chat dialogue is available every day between 1:00 PM and 3:00 AM, using a shared tool with Télé Accueil. A

messaging system In computer science, interprocess communication (IPC) is the sharing of data between running processes in a computer system. Mechanisms for IPC may be provided by an operating system. Applications which use IPC are often categorized as clients ...

is available for individuals, with a response time of 48 hours. SOS Amitié Internet is an organization founded under the 1901 law and affiliated with th
Federation SOS Amitié France
The

recruits and provides specific

training Training is teaching, or developing in oneself or others, any skills and knowledge or fitness that relate to specific useful competencies. Training has specific goals of improving one's capability, capacity, productivity and performance. I ...

for a team of listeners who already have experience in telephone listening at SOS Amitié.

Participation in INPES Action

As part of the improvement of the remote prevention and assistance in health (PADS) initiative initiated in 2011 by the National Institute for Prevention and Health Education (INPES),« Téléphonie santé + Internet : des dispositifs complémentaires et personnalisés au service de chacun rchive», INPES, 24 octobre 2011. SOS Amitié and 16 other

s have developed their websites and worked together to improve the training of listeners. Some of these training programs are shared. For example, at the end of 2011, listeners from these

s met and received a weekend of training.

Pop Culture

The action of the movie "

Le Père Noël est une ordure ''Santa Claus is a Stinker'' (, , or 'Father Christmas is a shit') is a French comedy play created in 1979 by the troupe Le Splendid and turned into a film directed by Jean-Marie Poiré in 1982. Plot Pierre, a stuffy and self-righteous voluntee ...

" takes place within an organization inspired by SOS Amitié on

Christmas Eve Christmas Eve is the evening or entire day before Christmas, the festival commemorating nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus. Christmas Day is observance of Christmas by country, observed around the world, and Christma ...

French Bibliography

Dupont, Sébastien. Face à la solitude existentielle de l’individu contemporain : les atouts de SOS Amitié, Revue SOS Amitié, 2010, no 143, p. 24-27. Ferrand-Bechmann, Dan, Dir. Sicard, Didier, Préf.. L'écoute, au cœur du métier bénévole. Ed Chronique Sociale, 2020. 131 p. Reboul, Pierre, Dir., Comte-Sponville, André, Préf. Sortir du silence : L'écoute à S.O.S Amitié . Ed Chronique Sociale, 2016. 208 p. Sacco, Francesca. La magie de l'écoute : Entretiens avec des bénévoles de La Main Tendue et de SOS Amitié. Georg Editeur, 2019. 224 p.

References

External links

Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:SOS Amitie Charities based in France 1960 establishments in France