Nightline is a listening, emotional support and information charity, run by students, for students.

The first Nightline was founded in 1970, aiming to address high levels of stress, anxiety and suicide amongst local students at Essex University. The idea quickly spread and, in 1973, Edinburgh Nightline was founded. Today there are 36 individual Nightlines in the UK and Ireland, made up of over 2000 specially trained student volunteers. Over 1.5 million higher education students now have access to a confidential, anonymous, non-judgmental, non-directional and non-advisory listening service should they ever need it.

We are proud to have been awarded Nightline of the Year 2023, having been awarded Best Volunteer Training in 2020, Most Innovative Nightline in 2017, and named Best Volunteer Training and Support 2015.

Today we operate a call service and an instant messenger service, open from 8pm till 8am for 5 days a week: Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. We aim to support students across Edinburgh, with backing from Edinburgh’s Higher and Further Education Institutions – the University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh Napier University, Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh College, Heriot-Watt University, and West Lothian College.

The vast majority of our volunteers are anonymous, both for the benefit of our callers and for the welfare of our volunteers. So, who exactly are we? Edinburgh Nightline is made up of volunteers from Edinburgh’s higher and further education institutions. Our volunteers are from different disciplines in various years of both undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, as well as a small number of recent alumni volunteers to help keep the service running. 

Seven of our committee are what we call public faces. Due to the nature of their work with us they must be able to speak publicly as representatives of Edinburgh Nightline. During the volunteer’s time in this position they don’t take calls. The seven positions fall across four roles: the Coordinators, the Publicity Coordinators, the Training Coordinators, and the Inclusion Coordinator.

Coordinators

The Coordinator role involves overseeing the whole of the committee and society overall. Coordinators are responsible for chairing meetings, managing committee relations, maintaining communication with our stakeholders, liaising with the Nightline Association, and generally keeping up and working to improve the service that we provide. This role often involves individual projects that change depending on the current needs of Nightline and what the coordinators themselves feel would be a impactful step forward.

Oscar

he/him

Oscar is a History and Politics graduate from Edinburgh who recently spent several years focusing on Nightline instead of finishing his masters. He’s now working as a volunteer coordinator for Childline and occasionally moonlights as a bouncer. When he’s not thinking about his amazing volunteers he loves cycling, reading, and replaying old video games.

Publicity Coordinators

The Publicity Coordinators manage publicity for Edinburgh Nightline. Their aim is to make Nightline visible in their campuses through stalls, advertising and events. They publicise our amazing service across Edinburgh! This involves distributing publicity materials such as stickers, posters, flyers and postcards, reaching out to organisations and collaborating with different societies.

Training Coordinators

The Training Coordinators oversee training within Edinburgh Nightline.

Isabel

she/her

Isabel is a 4th year Physics student. When free from the clutches of Kings Buildings, she enjoys swimming, finding the best local hikes, and spending time with friends!

Inclusion Coordinator

The Inclusion Coordinator is our first port of call for all minorities issues, both internally and externally. Their role is to help us understand and adapt the way we do things to make sure we’re never excluding anybody. Our Inclusion Coordinator is here to represent minorities, but never to speak for everyone. They’ll be working closely with our entire committee, and our entire society, to make sure that everyone feels seen and heard.

Nightline adheres to six principles:

Confidentiality

Anything talked through with a caller remains completely private. Discussing calls would be both disrespectful and unprofessional and would undermine the service we aim to provide for our callers. You can find our Privacy and Confidentiality Policy here. You can find our Safeguarding Summary here.

Anonymity

All of our volunteers are anonymous. Seven public faces represent our service publicly and no longer take calls, but these are the only exceptions to our strict anonymity policy. We do this to ensure that callers aren’t discouraged to call due to fear that someone they know may answer, but also to prevent stereotyping of our volunteers based on one person a caller may know.

Support

The concept of empathy guides everything we do. Empathy, unlike sympathy, is the capability to share and understand another’s feelings without diluting support with pity. We use empathy to listen, not judge or advise, in the hopes that a supportive, neutral ear can help callers sort through their emotions. We also endeavour to support our fellow volunteers, both while on shift and within the organisation generally.

Non-Judgementality

We strongly believe that the role of our listening volunteers is not to let their personal views or opinions influence how they take a call, even when these differ from the caller’s. We are here to listen, not to judge.

Additionally, non-judgementality involves not making any judgements about what callers’ situation are like or what callers should do.

Non-Directionality

Only the caller decides the direction of the call. As Nightliners, we can never know the full situation from one contact, and therefore any conclusions we draw may result from misunderstanding. Our volunteers are not qualified to give advice but can offer information and will listen and support for as long as this is needed. Non-directionality involves not giving the caller advice, opinions, discussing personal experiences, or directing the flow of the conversation.

Commitment

Nightline is a student-run organisation through and through. As such, we require a certain level of sustained involvement from our volunteers to continue running our service.