Our Family Circles have many benefits. Since peer members hold each other to a high standard, there's an increased level of accountability. The members get to know each other on a personal level, building a sense of friendship and community. An experienced and engaged circle group member can also provide knowledge, skills, and confidence to new families so that they can lift themselves out of extreme poverty. In addition to the knowledge and skills that group members acquire from each other, formal training is also delivered by professionals and site staff on a range of topics, including financial literacy. Some Chalice sites also have programming for elders. There are modifications to the focus of the programming to meet their specific needs. In many cases, the sponsored elders are cared for by Family Circles in their proximity.
Privacy Policy
At Chalice we respect and protect your privacy. This means that:
- With your consent, we will gather only the minimum personal information necessary to provide you with current information about our mission and activities, and to provide you with fast, reliable processes if you support Chalice
- We will not sell, exchange, loan or make available to other companies any personal information that you have provided to us.
- We will keep all personal information confidential, and we will have safeguards to protect that information whether it is in print, electronic or other form
- We will make available to you, upon request, your personal information that we have on file, and we will correct, amend or delete information at your request
- In the unfortunate event of a security breach we will take steps to contain and minimize the impact of the breach. To the extent required by law or best practices, we will notify you and the necessary third parties, and submit the appropriate reports to the Privacy Commissioner.
Personal information
In order to serve our supporters with the right materials at the right levels, delivered to the right address, and to ensure that the financial relationship is correct and current, Chalice needs to have certain basic personal information on file.
Personal information is the information we have that relates to you, our supporter, as an individual. Personal information, beyond your name and contact information may include any or all of the following: a record of your support and payment method, alternate contact information and your account number.
We will only request information from you that relates directly to the products or services we are providing to you, and we will keep that information active only as long as the uses for which it has been collected are relevant to your needs.
Valid Consent
Chalice must obtain the valid consent of anyone whose name may be retained in our records to receive products or information. If a supporter sends in a coupon or a form requesting our services, we accept that as implied consent. If we need information beyond that which the supporter has indicated (in conducting a survey, for instance), we will request the explicit consent of the supporter either verbally or in writing.
The supporter can at any time withdraw consent to receive further information or products. We will then remove the supporter’s name as quickly as possible.
From time to time we may acquire from outside companies lists of supporters who have consented to receive information. It may sometimes occur that a name that we have deleted on request from our files may appear on one of the lists we have acquired. In such a case the supporter may request another deletion.
Call monitoring and recording
In order to ensure a high level of supporter service, our supporter service calls may be monitored for training purposes only. We may do this to ensure the highest level of service to our supporters and to enable our staff to improve their skills through practical mentoring and coaching.
Employee commitment
Our employees and volunteers are committed to respecting the personal information we hold in our files. They have signed an obligation to abide by the company policy relating to the proper use of personal information.
Third party commitment
From time to time we may send information to third parties such as printers or mailing houses. These companies are required to sign a commitment to respect our privacy policy and to utilize the lists only for the purposes we specify and not make any copies of the files.
Limitations on use
We will not use your personal information for any purposes, other than those outlined above, unless we have asked your permission and have received your consent.
We will remove or destroy personal information when it is no longer relevant for the uses for which it was gathered. We will delete your name from our mailing list following the receipt of your request by letter, fax, email or phone.
Retention of information
We will not retain personal information indefinitely. Generally a name is retained for two years after it has become inactive. Files are then destroyed or deleted, except for financial and other records, which, in accordance with the law or best practices, have to be archived for longer periods. Archived information is not accessed or used for operational or marketing purposes.
Security
All information held by us is subject to strict internal security to prevent unauthorized access and improper usage. Electronic records are subject to limited access by authorized personnel who must use passwords and other security measures. Print records of personal information are subject to physical protection such as locked rooms or cabinets, accessible only to authorized personnel.
Our site contains links to other sites. Chalice is not responsible for the privacy policies or content of these linked websites.
Access to information
As our supporter, you have a right to know what information we are holding with respect to you, and you have the right to ensure that it is accurate. On request, we will arrange to supply you with a printout of our files relating to your information. If you wish to verify your information, please write to Chalice Privacy Officer, Suite 101, 26 Union Street, Bedford, Nova Scotia B4A 2B5 or call 1-902-252-3911 or 1-800-776-6855. If you find errors or omissions, we will be pleased to make corrections.
Website
When you visit our website, we take steps to respect and protect your privacy.
A cookie is information about how and when you use a site that a web server creates when you visit. This data is placed on your computer hard drive in the form of a small text file. There are two types of cookies: session cookies and persistent cookies. Session cookies are used only for the time you stay on the website. When you leave the site, they expire and are no longer active. Persistent cookies are more permanent and can be re-read when you return to the site. We use persistent cookies only to identify previous visits so that you may be directed to the part of our website in which you are interested. We do not use cookies to retrieve data from your hard drive or to obtain your e-mail address or other personal information.
You may choose not to accept cookies by setting your browser options to inform you when cookies are being sent, or to deny cookies altogether. Please note, however, that by not accepting cookies you may limit the functionality that we can provide to you when you visit our website.
To help us serve you better, we automatically collect generic, non-personal information about visits to our website. We do not collect personal information such as names, ages, phone numbers, addresses or e-mail addresses from visitors to our website. We do not collect individual profile information for visitors across multiple sites and do not aggregate information from any other sources about browsing patterns of individual visitors across multiple sites.
We do collect selected visitor information such as IP addresses, return visits from past guests, referring pages, pages visited and time spent on the website. We collect such non-personally identifiable information in order to: obtain statistical analysis of web page traffic patterns for our website, administer our website and servers, allow for auditing of our services by third parties, and to improve our services. We collect data in aggregate form, and data is not recorded or stored about individual visitors.
Questions or comments
We will do our best to resolve any questions or comments you may have. Please write Chalice Privacy Officer, Suite 101, 26 Union Street, Bedford, Nova Scotia B4A 2B5 or call 1-902-252-3911 or 1-800-776-6855., or email info@chalice.ca and indicate your concern as related to privacy so it may be directed to the privacy officer.
If, having shared your concerns with us, you are still not satisfied, you may file a complaint with the Privacy Commissioner of Canada by telephone at 1-800-282-1376, or by mail at 30 Victoria Street, Gatineau, Quebec K1A 1H3.
Scope
The personal information that you share with Chalice will be utilized only to manage our mission and work to provide donors with opportunities to help children and to communicate about our work. It will not be sold, exchanged or rented to any other organization or company.
To make this notice easily accessible, we will make it available on our home page and at every point throughout our website that requires the entry of personal information.
No personal data will be collected for browsing the Chalice website; however, these particulars will be required to access certain pages such as sponsorship of a child, making donations or requesting further information. In these cases, for example, donors will be asked to submit their name, address or other contact information.
Definition of Personal Information
Personal information is any information that can be used to distinguish, identify, or contact a specific individual. This may include an individual’s opinion or belief, as well as facts about, or related to the individual whether recorded or not.
Exception: Where an individual uses his/her home contact information as business contact information as well, we consider that the contact information provided is a business contact and is therefore, not subject to protection as personal information.
REPORTING TO THE BOARD
Senior Managers shall report infractions of this policy in a timely fashion to the President and / or the Management Committee of the Board. This includes reporting on the status of pending, ongoing and completed investigations and remedial actions
