Privacy Policy

This policy outlines Simcoe County YouthReach’s (SCYR) commitment to respecting the privacy of personal information of individual persons and explains how we collect, use, protect and disclose of personal information. This includes the personal information of applicants, program providers, donors, prospective donors, board members, volunteers, and our staff. This policy governs the activities of SCYR. YouthReach is a fully incorporated, autonomous charity.

Our Commitment to Protecting Your Privacy

SCYR embraces the principles of the Canadian Standards Association Model Code for the Protection of Personal Information and will control the collection, use, and disclosure and disposal of personal information in keeping with those principles. SCYR recognizes that we rely on the support of hundreds of thousands of individuals who engage with us in support of their community. We recognize that information is precious, and our stakeholders trust us to treat their information with respect for their privacy and a commitment to protecting the confidentiality of data. It is essential that we protect the privacy of the personal information individuals may choose to share with us or that we may gather by other lawful means.

What is Personal Information?

Personal information refers to information about an identifiable individual, but excludes certain business contact information, specifically name, title, business address or telephone number of an employee of an organization. From time to time, SCYR may, acting reasonably, collect information about identifiable individuals from published or public sources for the purposes of developing relationships with individuals.
The areas in which SCYR collects and uses personal information in accordance with this policy are principally, but not limited to:

Community: SCYR’s work to improve social conditions involves working with individuals acting on their own initiative or as representatives of community agencies, governments and other partner organizations that share common social objectives. SCYR gathers and uses personal information to keep individuals informed about relevant SCYR activities and work, and with permission may share personal information with others who share similar social objectives and a desire for networking. SCYR also gathers and uses personal information to provide professional development programs in the sector and with permission, shares personal information with previously identified program partners or vendors for the purposes of conducting program activities.

Donations: SCYR will collect and use personal information necessary to process donations and payments, redirect a donation or any part of a donation to another charity as instructed by the donor, issue tax receipts, confirm renewal of giving and maintain a donation history, keep donors informed about giving opportunities and the work of SCYR, acknowledge and recognize donations, and comply with federal and provincial regulatory guidelines and reporting requirements.

Workplace Philanthropy: SCYR supports workplace organizations who wish to run internal employee giving and engagement philanthropy programs. SCYR may be provided with employee names, business contact information and other employee-related information in order to provide personalized giving and volunteering experiences, whether paper pledge forms or secure online systems, to carry out workplace philanthropy programs. SCYR will work with organizations delivering workplace campaigns to determine data needs that ensure an optimal experience for employees and which also meets the organization’s personal data management policies. The data provided to SCYR is used only for the purposes of setting up the systems and facilitating the workplace philanthropy program. In some situations, the workplaces run philanthropic programs that reach beyond employees to include other related individuals such as retirees or contractors. SCYR follows the same practices in working with organizations in these situations as with employees.

Volunteering: SCYR will collect and use personal information to establish and maintain the volunteer relationship, assist volunteers in performing their volunteering roles and responsibilities, and keep them informed about relevant SCYR activities and the work of SCYR.

Event Participation: SCYR will collect and use personal information necessary to communicate with individuals about events, contests and promotions that they participate in, issues concerning related transactions, information about other events that they may be interested in and the work of SCYR; to recognize participation and award prizes; and to comply with federal and provincial regulatory guidelines and reporting requirements.

Our Privacy Principles

The following principles reflect our pledge to protect the privacy of your personal information:

Accountability

We are responsible for all personal information in our possession, including any personal information transferred to third parties for handling or administrative purposes.

We keep your personal information in strict confidence. All employees, agents (including authorized volunteers) and authorized service providers of SCYR are required to protect the confidentiality of your personal information. All employees and agents are required to sign and adhere to a Code of Conduct & Ethics which ensures they are informed about the importance of privacy protection. SCYR provides employees and agents with periodic information to ensure they are knowledgeable about our privacy policy and related policies.

Where we choose to have certain services, such as data processing, provided by third party service providers, we select the service providers carefully. We take all reasonable precautions to ensure that the service providers protect your personal information. These service providers enter into agreements with SCYR that confirm they have privacy and security standards comparable to our own.

Identifying Purposes

We collect, use and disclose personal information only for certain purposes that we identify to you. The purposes for which personal information is collected will be identified at the time the information is collected. With your consent, we collect information about you for various purposes, including the following:
Establish your identity.

Administer your involvements with us, including your donations, event participation, community engagements, volunteering, or employment, and contact you about your continued involvement.

Know who our donors, volunteers and other supporters are in order to manage and develop our resources to fulfill our mission to serve the greater good of the community.
Respond to your information requests.

Periodically, as we are able, send you literature on YouthReach or invite you to events or information sessions that are aligned with your interests.
Thank you and, with your consent, publicly recognize your financial or non-financial contributions.

Share information with other individuals or organizations, including organizations which you redirect donations to, volunteer at on our behalf, or interact with on our behalf.
Generate statistics and aggregate reporting to help us and our partner organizations understand where we can have greater impact on the community.

Meet legal and regulatory requirements.

Consent

We obtain personal information about you lawfully and fairly. We collect, use or disclose your personal information with your permission, except where otherwise required or permitted by law.

Your permission may be expressed (orally, electronically or in writing) or may be implied (by an action or inaction). You may withdraw your permission to the use and disclosure of your personal information at any time. We will comply, subject to legal, contractual or technical restrictions. For example, if you ask to not receive any mail from us, we take steps to suppress donation requests or general information, but we will still mail you a tax receipt for a donation or send you a statement of your outstanding payments against your pledged donation. Due to printing and distribution schedules, you may continue to receive some communications that were in process before we received your request. If there are various options to how we may handle your request, we will explain the options so that you can choose how you wish us to handle your request.

Limiting Collection

Personal information collected will be limited to that required for the purposes identified by us.

Limiting Use, Disclosure and Retention

We use your information for the purposes identified to you. When we intend to use your personal information for a purpose not identified to you when the information was collected, we will identify the new purpose and obtain your permission prior to use.

We do not sell your personal information.

We disclose your personal information in the following circumstances:
In the case of donors giving through their workplace, your workplace has access to certain personal information in the execution of the Employee Campaign. SCYR is respectful of the donor’s right to privacy and works with the individuals responsible for the Employee Campaign to limit with whom we share the information, and to only share information necessary for the purposes of the campaign.
We may contract with carefully selected third parties to perform services for us or on our behalf. When we select the third parties, we ensure that they use security and privacy standards comparable to our own.
In all other situations, we will disclose your personal information only with your consent, or as otherwise required or permitted by law.

We will keep your personal information only if it is necessary to satisfy the purposes for which it was obtained, or as required by law. We have guidelines and procedures for the retention and destruction of personal information. When we destroy personal information, we will use safeguards to prevent unauthorized parties from gaining access to that information during the process.

Accuracy

We maintain appropriate procedures to ensure that personal information in our possession is as accurate and up to date as is necessary for the purposes for which it is to be used. We rely on you to provide us with any changes to your personal information, and in particular to your contact information.

If you believe any of the information we have collected about you is incorrect or incomplete, you have the right to ask us to change it or delete it. If your personal information is inaccurate or incomplete, we will make the necessary changes.

Safeguards

We maintain appropriate technical and organizational safeguards to protect your personal information against loss, theft, unauthorized access, disclosure, copying, use or modification.

Access to your personal information is restricted to SCYR employees, agents and authorized service providers who need the information to fulfill the purpose for which the information was collected. SCYR will protect your personal information by safeguards that are appropriate to the sensitivity of that information and the format of the information, whether electronic or physical.

Openness

SCYR’s Privacy Policy is available to you at all times on our website. If you are unable to access our website or require our policy in another format, we will do our best to provide it in an alternative format that meets your requirements.

Individual Access

You may ask whether we hold any personal information about you, see your information and ensure that it is accurate. SCYR may ask that you submit your request in writing. SCYR will need to confirm your identity prior to disclosing any information to you, and may charge a reasonable fee to cover the cost of providing the information to you. If a fee is charged, SCYR will inform you of the approximate cost prior to providing the information to you.

You also have the right to know how we collected your personal information and how we are using it. We will inform you of the specifics to the best of our abilities.

Provide Recourse

SCYR has appointed a Privacy Officer who is responsible for this Privacy Policy and our compliance. If you have any privacy concerns, you may contact any of our employees that you normally interact with to discuss your concerns or requests. If you are unsure of whom to contact or have further concerns, you may contact the office of our Privacy Officer by email to info@youthreach.ca .

You may register a privacy-related complaint by emailing SCYR’s Privacy Officer. We will investigate all complaints. If an objection is justified, we will take all appropriate steps to repair the situation, including changing our policies and practices if necessary.