Volunteers are the heart of Sussex Nightstop

If you’ve got a spare room, or spare time at evenings and weekends, we’d love you to join our growing volunteer community of kind, caring folks. You’ll be amazed at how much a safe night’s sleep can help homeless young people in Brighton and Hove and you’ll find your involvement hugely rewarding for surprisingly minimal effort. Our hosts provide short stays (days, not weeks or months) as a temporary stop gap, whilst we support our guests into more permanent accommodation.

Hear from volunteer hosts about their Nightstop experiences

Find out how we train and support our hosts

Volunteering with Sussex Nightstop

Sussex Nightstop welcomes volunteers from all backgrounds, communities and beliefs and we need more hosts. If you have a spare room and a kind heart, please consider us! We are striving to build a host pool that reflects the wide range of young people who stay with us, so if you're a Brightonian with African, Asian or Middle Eastern heritage, we'd love to hear from you especially. We're also keen to grow our host representation from the LGBTQ+ community.

"It’s rewarding, feeling like you might have given some safety and security to someone in need"

HOME FINAL

Get involved in a vital community project that helps to prevent homelessness in our city and in return we’ll provide:

  • a comprehensive training program through which you will acquire new knowledge and skills
  • an opportunity to meet a wide and diverse range of people and with it the chance to broaden your life perspective
  • the chance to be a part of the Sussex Nightstop community with the opportunity to meet and make friends with other like-minded people
  • the opportunity to develop your volunteering role to other areas of Sussex Nightstop
  • reimbursement of out-of-pocket expenses incurred through your volunteering

Volunteers needed

Volunteer hosts

Our hosts are there to provide a safe night’s sleep to Nightstop guests through a warm welcome, an evening meal, washing facilities, access to a private bedroom, breakfast and, most importantly, a listening ear or a bit of space – whichever is needed.

Community Champions

If you’re a good communicator and you want to meet new people in your community as a representative of Sussex Nightstop, this flexible, time-limited role is for you. It requires just a few hours each month. More info here.

Contact us for more information and to apply

If you are interested and would like to hear more about what’s involved, please fill the form below or write to us at [email protected]

We’d love to hear from you.

We run monthly zoom info sessions for people who live in and around Brighton & Hove who'd like to join our community response to youth homelessness. It's an informal, informative 30-minute session for you to find out how voluntary hosting works and if it's for you. Includes Q&A with an experienced Nightstop host. Please register here to attend.

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FAQs

Yes- we have trusted and known referral partners and experienced coordinators who perform a through face-to-face risk assessment with young people.

Every host receives training, which covers an introduction to youth homelessness, boundaries, practical tips and safeguarding rules. We also offer an ‘on-call’ service that offers phone support to both guests and hosts.

All our volunteers sign up to a rota and choose which evenings they would like to host, on a completely flexible basis. There’s absolutely no pressure and you can do as much or as little as you choose. We’ll always ring you on the day to check if you’re still available and if you would like to host the guest which we’ve matched to you.

A private room, an evening meal, breakfast, a packed lunch and access to a shower and washing machine. Hosts must be at home for the whole evening, as guests can’t be left in the house alone. Nightstop reimburses hosts for all expenses incurred.

As long as the house is clean, comfortable and has all relevant safety features such as working smoke alarms and a private spare room, then it’s perfect.

Hosts need to be kind, compassionate, non-judgmental, patient, reliable, willing to uphold boundaries and good at listening. Don’t worry, it may seem like a daunting experience taking on the host journey but our training will tell you everything you need to know. And we’re always available to support and develop our wonderful volunteer hosts.

Find out more

To find out more about becoming a volunteer host or community champion, please get in touch via our contact form.