NiteLine Ireland exists thanks to the support of the colleges, students union, and counselling services from colleges across Ireland, in turn granting their students access to the NiteLine listening service. Affiliates may pay up to 15 cents per student each year, which supports the running of our charity. This page details what NiteLine is and how we work with our affiliated colleges to provide our service to college students across Ireland.
NiteLine is a late-night peer support, listening, and information service. We are run by students for other students, and callers can contact us by phone or instant message through our website. NiteLine provides college students with an anonymous, confidential, non-judgemental, and non-directive service that is open every night of term, 7 days a week from 9pm to 2:30am. One of our goals is for every student across Ireland to have access to our service, regardless of their college or what they study!
NiteLine is a tailored mental health support service specifically for students, run by other college students. We are open at night and on weekends when most other student services are closed. Our four pillars, centred on anonymity, confidentiality, non-judgemental, and non-directive support, make us unique as a helpline and provide our callers with a safe space to talk about whatever is on their mind. We take calls about everything; whether that be how someone’s day went, loneliness, college stress, or more sensitive topics such as assault, or suicide. At NiteLine, no problem is too big or too small!
As peers, we don’t tell our callers what to do. We listen, give information if the caller wishes, and support them in making their own decisions. We also work with our affiliated colleges to help redirect our callers to university supports, such as college counselling services, if the caller requests information. We actively recruit students from our affiliated colleges, creating a population of individuals who are highly trained, motivated, and capable of supporting their peers.
Percentage of all calls · 100% in total
The six largest categories are shown individually. The other 14 categories are grouped in grey.
Exact percentages supplied by NiteLine.
Students from each of NiteLine’s 12 affiliated colleges have the unique opportunity to volunteer with NiteLine, gaining invaluable skills and experience that can last a lifetime. Each NiteLine trainee attends 24 hours of initial training in a small group, led by two senior volunteers. This training covers key topics, such as active listening, signposting to other services, self-care, and specialised call topics such as suicide, self-harm, loneliness, and sexual violence. This initial training was developed in collaboration with volunteers themselves, college counselling services, and external organisations such as The Samaritans.
Each trainee must complete upwards of 6 practice calls with a senior volunteer throughout their training period.
At the end of training, trainees are tested on a number of key skills across both phone and instant messaging. Once a trainee has proven they have met the necessary standard, they complete one shift without taking any calls to observe the call-taking process.
The trainee then becomes a fully-fledged volunteer and is scheduled for shifts with senior volunteers to support them. Senior Volunteers also receive ongoing training throughout their time with NiteLine. Ongoing training takes the form of a refresher training at the start of each academic year, bi-weekly support meetings throughout the year, a training weekend in the second semester, alongside talks and workshops from external organisations.
NiteLine prides itself on the level of support it provides to our volunteers.
NiteLine has Support Meetings throughout the academic year. These Support Meetings are facilitated by a counsellor from one of our affiliated colleges and provide an opportunity for volunteers to reflect on difficult calls and learn from one another. Volunteers who miss two consecutive Support Meetings cannot attend a call-taking shift until they have attended a Support Meeting.
NiteLine volunteers never work alone; we 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 volunteers who have taken a difficult call.
Our affiliated colleges provide counselling through their counselling services to any volunteer who may have taken a difficult call and would like additional support.
NiteLine is funded by our affiliated colleges. In return, NiteLine provides a variety of services to these colleges.
NiteLine provides students of our affiliated colleges with access to our late-night listening, information, and support service.
NiteLine may also run workshops in our affiliated colleges, such as “How to Support a Friend” or “Self-care”.
NiteLine will also run college-specific publicity events and provide our affiliated colleges with publicity materials specific to that college in order to advertise our service to students.
Students of our affiliated colleges are able to volunteer with NiteLine.
NiteLine can also offer bi-annual anonymised statistics on the main issues facing students.
The affiliation fee for each college is determined by the number of students in the college. The affiliation fee is generally paid by the college counselling service or student services in each college.
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