At Leeds Nightline, we operate a confidential and anonymous listening service every single night of term for the students of Leeds. We run from 8pm til 8am every night on a purely voluntary basis and haven't missed a shift in years and years.
We operate from a small flat in Leeds and this is where volunteers will spend 12 hours at a time taking phone calls. These calls can be about anything, they can last for up to hours at a time and it can sometimes be a stressful and emotionally draining thing to do.
Unfortunately with age the flat has started to lose its charm and "homely" feel. To try and make a nicer environment for our volunteers to work in I am going to run the Leeds Half Marathon on 14th May and I would like to put any money I raise through this towards making the flat feel a bit more friendly. My main idea is to fund a Polaroid camera for the flat for a year, where each night there would be a photo taken of our selfless volunteers which they could add to a collage in the main room. I think this would be a great way to celebrate the hard work that people put in and also help motivate volunteers and make them feel like it is THEIR flat, not just a building.