The Nightline Association, the umbrella charity for student-run listening and information services on UK university campuses, has announced that it is to close.
The organisation, which represents 34 Nightline services taking more than 30,000 calls each year, cited financial challenges and declining volunteer numbers for its decision, effective at the end of June. Individual Nightlines will remain operational.
The first Nightline opened at the University of Essex in 1970 and its model of non-judgemental peer support spread across British campuses over the next two decades, with the first umbrella organisation, National Nightline, founded in 1991. In 2006 it became a registered charity, the Nightline Association.
Its role has been to provide centralised support, including accreditation, training standards and good practice guidelines, as well as to enable cooperation between Nightline services.
But it has always operated on a small scale, with one salaried employee listed on its website, and said that in recent times it had been contending with “a difficult funding landscape, declining volunteer numbers, and increasing costs”.
The Nightline Association said that in the run-up to June it would prioritise supporting Nightlines, which are?run by more than?1,500 volunteers, and work with students’ unions, trustee boards and universities to enable them to continue their work.
“We are so proud of how far the Nightline movement has come, and we will be working with each of our Nightlines, their institutions and students’ unions over the next four months to ensure they can continue to support students when other services aren’t available,” said Katie Endacott, the association’s chief executive.
“We are incredibly grateful for the thousands of volunteers who have been involved with the Nightline Association in its many forms over the years. It is with their support, alongside that of our wonderful donors, that the Nightline movement continues to live on.”
The association said that it would seek to find a “new home” for its training standards, technical and IT support, and other guidance.
Michael Sanders, chair of the association’s trustees and professor of public policy at King’s College London, said: “While I am sad that it has been necessary for the Nightline Association to close, I am intensely proud of all the work done by Katie and the dedicated team of volunteers at the NLA.
“In the time I’ve been chair of trustees, I’ve witnessed the incredible work they’ve done to support Nightlines under increasingly difficult circumstances. Thanks to their efforts, the Nightline movement will be left with the best possible resources as it continues into the future.”
