This week’s Her Campus celebrity is Durham University Nightline’s Publicity Officer, Rosa Tallack. As it is Her Campus Durham’s mental health awareness week we thought it would be brilliant to raise awareness of support available and speak to the Publicity Officer of the confidential listening service for all Durham University students.
1. Nightline is a confidential listening service, could you tell me a little bit about what Nightline aims to achieve by providing this service?
As students, there’s absolutely loads going on. We think it’s really important that there’s somewhere that people feel they can talk about whatever is on their mind, without fear of judgment or being told what to do. Friends are amazing, but I know there have been times in my life when I’ve wanted to talk to someone a bit more removed from a situation; we try to be somewhere that offers that. The world is often a busy place and sometimes it can be really valuable to have someone just to listen to you.
2. What can you contact Nightline about?
You can call us about absolutely anything, at all. We’re there when you’re feeling joyful, lonely, anxious, tired, excited, stressed, bored. We’re there when you’re after a taxi/pizza number, want someone to chat to walking home alone at night or want to debrief on your night in Lloyds. We’re there when nothing seems to be going right, and when everything seems to be going right. Our volunteers are happy to talk about whatever callers want to chat about – we try and make sure that callers feel as though they can take the call wherever they want.
3. Can Nightline offer students advice?
When you’re dealing with your own emotions, you don’t always want to be met with someone else’s opinions, so we don’t offer advice to students. You know your emotions far better than we ever will do and I’d never want to pretend otherwise, so we don’t feel we’re in any position to tell you what to do. Often the ‘answer’ (if there is one!) isn’t obvious, or it might suddenly become clear days later. We hope that by allowing callers to chat through anything they’re feeling, thoughts might become a bit clearer. Of course though, we do have information we can provide you with if you’d like.
4. When can you contact Nightline?
We’re open every night of term between 9pm and 7am. You’ll find our number on the DUO homepage, on the back of your campus card, or on the Nightline keyring.
‘All night, all term, all ears’
5. Apart from the phone line, are there other ways to get in touch?
Nightline also has an instant messaging service, that can be accessed through our website (http://community.dur.ac.uk/nightline/), if you’d rather contact us this way.
6. Who speaks to you on the phone at Nightline?
We have about 50 volunteers, all of whom are also Durham University students, that you could be speaking to. Although about 300 people attend our training weekends each year, anyone you speak to must be successful at interview; volunteers are selected for their ability to provide non-judgmental and confidential support. Other than the three public faces, we do everything we can to protect our volunteers’ anonymity so that people feel as comfortable as possible to contact us. We always have two volunteers on duty (and two volunteers on reserve), so if you think that you do recognise someone’s voice, you’re welcome to ask to speak to the other volunteer. Anything you say stays between you and the volunteer you’ve spoken to; we don’t discuss the content of our calls.
7. How did you first get involved in Nightline?
I’d heard a few things about Nightline and thought it sounded really interesting, so I went along to a training weekend to find out what it was all about. Throughout the weekend there were some really inspiring talks and thought-provoking group sessions. I still wasn’t sure if I wanted to go to the interviews as they sounded nerve-wracking, but I’m so glad I did – it’s without any doubt the best thing I’ve got involved with at university.
8. What does your role as Publicity Officer at Nightline involve?
My job is basically to get as many students as possible across the university to hear about our Nightline and feel able to contact us. I’ll hopefully be putting on some fun campaigns to do that so keep an eye out! I also sit on Welfare, Equality and Diversity Committee to help represent our organisation and am generally around to answer questions and queries about Nightline.
9. What are the roles of the other public figures of Nightline?
We have two other public faces; Olivia, our Director and Hannah, our Training Officer. Olivia is responsible for overseeing the running of the organisation; she liaises with the University and external organisations and is always there for any volunteer to chat to. Her job is enormous – she does so much for Nightline and we <3 her. Hannah is responsible for organising and running Training Weekend (we hold these in February, June and October - keep an eye out if you’re interested). It’s also her job to organise internal training for volunteers in between external training weekends and deliver external training to places like SCA and to Freps.
Nightline public faces: Rosa, Olivia , and Hannah
10. Is there anything else you’d like Durham students to know about Nightline that they may not already?
Three things – firstly, check out (and please share!) our super video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRjvRoBbSdA
Secondly, look out for sign-up for our training weekends, if you’re interested in getting involved. Being a volunteer is fab – we even have a pie-maker in the office.
Thirdly, (a little less exciting than pies admittedly), you might be interested to know that we run under a National Association which maintains Nightlines at other universities.
Thank you so much to Rosa for taking the time to talk to Her Campus. We really appreciate the work you do! Nightline is there for all Durham University students so if you’re reading please don’t hesitate to get in touch if you need someone to talk to!
p.s. Don’t forget to check out Durham University Nightline website and Facebook page:
http://community.dur.ac.uk/nightline/
https://www.facebook.com/durhamnightline/?fref=ts