London Nightline

Who we are

Our vision is that every student in London feels fulfilled and fully supported. We aim to achieve this by offering support to London’s students throughout the night via a listening and information service, contributing to a 24-hour welfare support for students. We do our best to be as accessible as possible, and offer support that is peer-led, accepting, and confidential.

Students can contact us every night of term from 6pm - 8am through a number of different methods, including telephone, Skype phone, email and online chat. Through our diverse modes of contact, highly trained student volunteers deliver a non-advisory, non-judgmental listening service.

We have very high standards for our volunteers, who gain a wide range of skills. All our hotline volunteers receive 9 hours of active listening skills training, followed by 12 hours of mental health awareness, policies and procedures training, and regular "top up training". After initial training, volunteers are selected on their basis of our 5 core skills (non-directive open questioning, listening, empathy, acceptance and reflection), their ability to communicate effectively in written and spoken English, and their acceptance of our confidentiality policy. We also offer extensive support for volunteers, including self-care workshops, regular check-ins, and on-call supervision.

We also offer opportunities for publicity and fundraising volunteering. These volunteers can get involved with grant writing, events, social media, design, journalism, and more.

London Nightline is an independent, registered charity (1015744) which any university in Greater London can choose to become affiliated to. At present, we have 40 affiliated institutions. We are a member of the Helplines Partnership, and Good Practice Guideline accredited by the Nightline Association.