Nottingham Night Owls

About Nottingham Night Owls

Nottingham Night Owls aim to aid student safety on the two major student nights each week.

We provide our volunteers with first aid, self-defence and active listening training, free of charge.

Volunteers are required to participate in 1 shift a month, with a lot of flexibility over which shift you sign up to. Our shifts run on Wednesdays and Thursdays each week with up to 8 on-patrol volunteers as well as 2 experienced in-office volunteers. During shift, on-patrol volunteers are divided into 2 teams of 3-4 people with each team covering different high-traffic student routes and each team reporting to an in-office volunteer every half an hour.

We provide our volunteers with stock and equipment, such as first aid supplies, portable phone chargers and snacks (lots of biscuits and lollipops!). Common services our volunteers provide for students include walking someone home, waiting for a taxi with someone, handing out biscuits or providing basic first aid.

We utilise contacts with Nottingham city police, the City Council and other Nottingham-based organisations to enhance the service we provide and the training we can provide to our volunteers. In the past we have organised for our volunteers training on hate crime (delivered by representitatives of the city as part of the No Place For Hate campaign) and on controlled substance abuse (delivered by Nottingham city police).

Outside of patrols we have a wonderful community and we organise regular pizza socials as well as nights out and activity-based trips, such as bowling.

Nottingham Night Owls is an excellent oppurtunity to: volunteer whilst at university, gain valuable experience and skills (particularly reacting well under pressure), boost your CV and meet a wonderful array of people from all walks of university life!