How NiteLine works

Organisational Overview

A student-led organisation built around trained volunteers, strong college partnerships and meaningful peer support.

Organisational Structure

NiteLine has almost 100 call-taking volunteers, all of whom are third-level students or recent graduates.
Every one of NiteLine’s volunteers undergo the same 24-hours of active listening training, taking at least two call-taking shifts per month.
Each year, this volunteer base elects the committee which will run the organisation, with support from counsellors and other key staff members in our affiliated colleges.
The committee consists of seven departments: Training, Publicity, Finance, Research & Development, Welfare, Limerick, and Cork.
The committee is chaired by the Coordinator and assisted by our Vice-Coordinator, both also students or recent graduates elected to their roles by the volunteers.
There is a designated Public Face for each affiliated college. These are volunteers who have given up their anonymity in an effort to better publicise our service to students, being in charge of managing relations and coordinating advertisements for that college.
The heads of each department present on NiteLine’s operations, developments, needs, and upcoming plans to stakeholders from each affiliated college annually.

12 Affiliated Colleges

NiteLine’s stakeholders are its volunteers, as well as the students, Student Services department, and Students’ Unions of its affiliated colleges.
NiteLine derives its funding from its 12 affiliated colleges: Dublin Business School, Dublin City University, Dundalk Institute of Technology, Institute of Art Design + Technology, Maynooth University, National College of Art and Design, Royal College of Surgeons Ireland, Technological University Dublin, Trinity College Dublin, University College Cork, University College Dublin, University of Limerick.

Volunteers at NiteLine undergo 24 hours of training when joining the service, covering key topics such as active listening, signposting to other services, self-care, NiteLine’s policy, and specialised call topics such as suicide, self-harm, loneliness, and sexual violence.
NiteLine’s training was developed in collaboration with volunteers themselves, college counselling services, and external organisations such as Samaritans Ireland.
Trainees complete several practice calls throughout training with both themselves and senior volunteers outside of training.
At the end of their training, trainees are tested on a number of key skills across both phone calls and instant messaging.
Volunteers receive ongoing training from the training team and external organisations throughout their time with NiteLine.

NiteLine as an organisation prides itself on the support we have available to volunteers.
Our bi-weekly Support Meetings are facilitated by a counsellor from one of our affiliated colleges, and provide an opportunity to reflect on difficult calls and learn from one another. Volunteers must attend at least one Support Meeting per month.
NiteLine volunteers never work alone. Volunteers are trained to debrief each other after calls and at the end of each shift without breaching a caller’s confidentiality.
NiteLine has a dedicated Support Officer, known as our Head of Welfare, who checks in with any volunteer who may have taken a difficult call while on shift.
Within NiteLine are Support Leaders, who are experienced volunteers that provide off-site support to volunteers throughout their shift and help facilitate group discussions at our Support Meetings.
Our affiliated counsellors provide counselling to any volunteers who have taken a difficult call and would like additional support.

If you wish to learn more about NiteLine as an organisation, you can read our Annual Report here.