DiscoveringStartups -Tech Startup Reviews

Student Spill LLC—often known by the acronym of SPILL, standing for “Supporting Peers in Laid-back Listening”—is an online peer-based support system that allows college students to “spill” about their problems via email, and get personalized feedback from other local students with experience in their specific issue. Whether students are struggling with roommate problems, homesickness, worries about the future, romantic relationships, body image issues, concerns about sexuality, or even just a bad day, they can go to www.studentspill.com, choose the campus they’re writing in from, and vent about it. Within 24 hours, these anonymous “spillers” receive messages of support from 6-8 of SPILL’s volunteer “student facilitators” who provide feedback, empathy, and resources for that specific problem.

The company itself offers this service to colleges, universities, and distance-learning institutions as a mental health resource for their students. In turn, we provide them with reporting of the specific issues that students on their campus are dealing with, giving them an insider view of student problems.

Currently, no other online peer-based support services are in operation, nor have they successfully been able to start due to restrictions from campus counseling centers. SPILL, however, has formed a relationship with University Health Services, and is highly supported by counseling centers as an additional resource for mental health support. Though SPILL does not wish to be a replacement for counseling, students have expressed concern with being “exposed” or “embarrassed” by sitting in a counseling waiting room, with 40% saying the potential for being seen is enough to deter them from getting help. Similarly, campus counseling centers often have limited hours, and are not available late at night when students may need to talk to someone most. In addition, many students say that there is relief in sharing problems with another individual who is the same age and “on the same level” instead of a medical professional who may have graduated from college 30 years earlier and may not be on the same page. Since both parties’ identities are kept confidential, it allows troubled students to get encouragement and campus resources from peers when they may not know where to turn.

The need for mental health support services is apparent, and SPILL provides a tool that is greatly accepted and appreciated by both students and university personnel.

In addition, most schools have large sums of money reserved for “preventative programming” or “direct student services” used to purchase things like alcohol awareness programs or sexual assault intervention programs for anywhere from $50,000-80,000 annually. Unlike these, however, SPILL is not restricted to one specific issue, and gives students an outlet for all types of stressors. UW-Madison granted SPILL with $70,000 for 2010 after seeing the impact the program made within one year, and the company has been approached by over 25 interested schools over the last year. The program originated at UW-Madison and has since begun operations at 4 other colleges in the US. An additional 7 other campuses–schools such as Berkeley and Purdue–will be set up over the summer of 2010.

We will sell membership to the program and its documents to the universities at a yearly subscription fee, with an additional one time fee for initial start-up. Fees will vary based on school size, and specialized reporting can be purchased if the school expresses interest.

No thoughts at the moment. Very interesting!

Please visit their website to learn more: http://studentspill.com/home/home.html