AN INSIDER’S LOOK AT LONDON NIGHTLINE

AND ITS VOLUNTEERS

In the previous issue we looked at the experience of volunteering and other opportunities for involvement; here Dr Emma Johnston looks at why Nightline might be a draw and what we get out of it.

Have you ever wondered why students volunteer for Nightline, or even why you volunteered for Nightline? What do we get out of it? Does the experience influence our career choices or other areas of our life?

In my fourth year at medical school I had been volunteering and actively involved in London Nightline for 3 years and decided to take the opportunity to use one of my special study modules to investigate Nightline and its volunteers. We are continually evaluating Nightline by filling in feedback forms about a particular training session or adjustment to the rota system but these rarely look at actually volunteering. I set about designing a questionnaire to send out to London Nightline volunteers in May 2004. It looked at all aspects of volunteering, concentrating on why students volunteer and what they gain from it.

After writing my research up as coursework I submitted a paper to the Journal of Volunteer Administration, it was accepted for publication and printed in the June edition of the journal. It was after this that our Insomniac editor thought other volunteers might be interested to read about what I found.

The Basics...

A little background information about Nightline and London Nightline for those of you not in the know. Across the country there are more than 50 different Nightlines with over 1600 volunteers, all supported by the umbrella-body, National Nightline. London Nightline is one of the biggest Nightlines and along with Leeds is a registered charity. It was set up in West London in 1971 and currently has around 75 volunteers. The service covers all the University of London colleges so our volunteers come from as far afield as Royal Holloway and Brunel Universities. At our office in Central London the telephone lines are open 6pm-8am every night of term and we operate an e-mail listening service. In the academic year 2001-02 the helpline took over 2300 calls and volunteers gave up an average 140 hours each to operate the lines.

YES BREAKDOWN

Why Volunteer?

It wasn’t often I told people that I volunteer for Nightline for confidentiality reasons, but sometimes it was necessary. The first question people asked was why and I always found this difficult. When asked why they volunteer 47% of the London Nightline students said they wanted to give something back to the community by helping other students. 26% volunteered for personal development; this included improving communication skills or gaining a greater insight into the problems facing students today. 10% wanted to meet new people; a further 10% had been through a personal crisis and wanted to help others through difficult times in their lives. The final 7% were interested in a career in a similar field, so volunteering for Nightline enhances their CV and gives them invaluable experience.

The greatest thing the students had gained from volunteering for Nightline was often associated with their reasons for joining. For example improved listening skills and increased confidence, an insight into student welfare or meeting new people. In addition an interesting area highlighted by the research was that 63% of the volunteers said they had changed their current or future plans as a direct result of volunteering for Nightline (Figure 1). 75% of these students wish to do further volunteering in this field, 18% wish to pursue a job involved with student welfare and the remaining 7% want to study for related qualifications.

Is the training provided good enough?

Training is an essential part of any Nightline. Volunteers need to be well prepared to take calls and given adequate practice. New volunteers are recruited to London Nightline at the beginning of each academic year. They attend 3 evenings of basic training which are assessed; these involve learning the main principles of Nightline and gaining experience in dealing with calls using the method of role-play. Successful candidates then undergo a further weekend of training before answering calls.

97% of the volunteers questioned said they felt they had received enough training. How good training is reflects on how prepared the new volunteers feel to take their first call. 38% said they were fully prepared, reasons given for this were excellent training, previous experience volunteering for helplines and good support within the organisation (Figure 2).

The remaining 62% felt they weren’t prepared. Of these, 77%

needed first hand experience of hearing and taking calls before they felt completely confident, 17% were nervous about taking their first call, this affected with how well prepared they were and for the remaining 6% English was not their first language so they were worried about conversing in addition to dealing with the call.

Do we enjoy the experience enough to continue volunteering?

The time and emotional commitment required to be a Nightline volunteer is extensive, particularly when studying for a degree at the same time. I was therefore interested in how many students volunteered for more than a year and why. 43% of the volunteers asked were going to volunteer for Nightline for more than a year. 88% of these students have enjoyed the experience and want to continue (Figure 3), 6% want to pass their knowledge on to new volunteers and the remaining 6% want to contribute further to the organisation.

In addition 57% of the volunteers want to or already do hold a position of responsibility within the organisation; reasons for this include students wanting to get more involved (47%), wanting to help other volunteers (26%), enjoying the responsibility (17%) or have had previous experience (9%).

Conclusion

I hope you’ve enjoyed sharing this brief summary of my research findings. It has been interesting to investigate why we as students volunteer and how much influence this has on our future interests and careers. As volunteers we feel prepared to take calls after the training programme and despite the commitment required the majority of us what to volunteer for more than a year and get more involved within the organisation.

Happy Volunteering!
Emma Johnston is an alumnus of London Nightline