Celebrating Volunteers' Week

This week is Volunteers’ Week! London Nightline wouldn’t exist without the hard work and dedication of our student volunteer team, who answer calls and messages from students across London every night. They give up their time to be there for their peers, so that no one has to go through their darkest moments alone. We’re so proud of our volunteers, and always work to champion and acknowledge their hard work.

London Nightline was created in 1971 when a group of students felt there wasn’t enough support to prevent student suicide. Since then it's grown into the student-led organization it is now, covering around 50 institutions across the city, with volunteers from all of them coming together. Our volunteers are highly trained, so they’re able to provide a high standard of empathetic, non-directive support, no matter what is brought up in the conversation. They’re also anonymous, which means they don’t make the fact of their volunteering public.

Some volunteers even commit to extra responsibilities as well as call taking, by joining our committee. This team helps to shape the service in every way. They’re consulted for reviews and changes, make some fantastic suggestions that create a better volunteering opportunity foreveryone, and support their fellow volunteers.

The community our volunteers have developed is so strong, and it’s always a joy to see. Students across different institutions, disciplines, and backgrounds who would otherwise never meet, are brought together through their compassion for others and dedication to providing support. They develop close friendships that last a lifetime.

We love any opportunity to celebrate our volunteers, their incredible work, and their inspiring sense of community. We acknowledge and reward this all year round, but this week we’ve taken it to the next level, with our annual end of year volunteer awards and celebration. We all gathered together to celebrate our community, gave out awards for those who’ve reached milestones in volunteering hours, and said goodbye to some graduating volunteers, who will be missed. It was such a fun night to mark another academic year coming to an end, and it’s made us all the more excited to see what next year has in store.

If you or your students could be interested in volunteering, you can find everything you need to know here.