Nottingham Night Owls: They Kept You Safe Last Night

Ahead of their upcoming training date for new volunteers, Her Campus Nottingham sits down with Chloe Dench, Nottingham Night Owls training officer, to find out more about the fantastic work this project carries out…

1) What is Night Owls and what are your aims?

Nottingham Night Owls is a student led project. We aim to improve student safety and well-being on nights out, reduce the levels of crime in Nottingham, and improve the relationship between students and the city.

2) What sort of work do you do?

We help students get home safely, whether that be through walking them home, calling taxis and riding with them if need be, charging phones, giving out biscuits, water and flipflops…basically whatever it takes to ensure someone is safe.

We also do things to improve awareness such as giving out spikies (the things you put in the tops of bottles to prevent drinks being spiked) and signposting to other services.

Whilst on patrols another goal is to pick up litter, which means students are less likely to be injured by broken glass or be attacked by someone using it, but also makes the city cleaner for the non-student residents. Some of our volunteers get competitive with the litter picking which is great!

It’s not all work and no play though – we also have lots of fundraising opportunities and socials!

3) How did you get involved in the project and why?

Last winter I saw leaflets around Broadgate Park advertising Night Owls and thought it looked like a really worthwhile opportunity, but it was the Night Owls Christmas Ocean that really sold the idea to me (I LOVE OCEAN).  

I trained with Night Owls in February 2017 and joined the committee in June – I now organise the training for new volunteers and extra workshops for current volunteers on subjects like mental health.

The main reason I got involved is to help fellow students – many of us owls have been in unsafe situations on nights out ourselves, either from not knowing the city well, being separated from friends, or being under the influence of alcohol, so we know how important our service is and what a difference it can make.

Night Owls is also a great project that can be added to your CV or count as volunteering hours for things like DofE. However not only is it a great volunteering opportunity, but shifts can be really fun – we always have interesting stories to share when we get back to the office at the end of the night, and you bond with your patrol after being out together for hours. People always want to talk to you if you’re offering lollies – free food definitely draws a student in.

4) How can others get involved with Night Owls?

We usually run training sessions twice a year in October/February. This year, as we are expanding to Nottingham Trent University, we have an additional training date on 12th November and we’re accepting UoN applications as well.

The application form can be found on our website: http://www.nottinghamnightowls.co.uk/get-involved and we’re always looking for more students to help, whether it be to help publicize our service or to join the teams out and about. If you have any questions, get in touch!

You only have to commit to one patrol a month and it’s free to join. Patrols run on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 12am-4am. You get trained in active listening, first aid and self defence, plus extra workshops which you can request!

5) Do you have any events coming up?

Yes! We’re so excited for our Night Owls’ Winter Formal on Saturday 25th November at Colwick Hall! It’s open to everyone, including volunteers/alumni/plus-ones. There will be a three course meal, entertainment, speeches from Nottingham Police and presentations about Night Owls. It’ll be a ‘hoot’!

If you’re interested in joining us, I’d 100% say do it! If you’ve got any questions you can message our Facebook page or contact us through our website – we’re always happy to chat!

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/notts.nightowls/

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• awareness
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