Privacy Policy

Who This Covers

RISE Alberni is a community nonprofit in Port Alberni, BC. We run English classes, settlement support, skills and employment programs, community events, an anti-racism initiative, emergency resilience work, and a paid tutoring service for K-12 and post-secondary students.

This policy covers personal information about everyone we work with: tutoring families, English learners and settlement clients, tutors, staff, volunteers, donors, sponsors, and anyone who visits this website or contacts us. It covers what you give us online, in person, by phone, by email, or by text.

Sections 4 to 8 each cover one group of people. Read the one that fits you: this website, tutoring families, English classes, settlement help, and other programs, tutors, staff, and volunteers, or donors and sponsors. Everything else applies to everyone. Our tutoring and English programs also give you a short privacy notice when you sign up.

Personal information means information about a person who can be identified. Your name, phone number, and details about your family or your goals are all personal information. Work contact details used to reach you at your job are treated differently under BC law.

This policy does not apply to other organizations. When we link you to a service in our resource directory, that organization handles your information under its own policy.

Our Privacy Officer

British Columbia's Personal Information Protection Act, usually called PIPA, sets the rules for how organizations like ours collect, use, and share personal information. We follow it, and we are responsible for information we hand to a service provider to handle for us.

Our Privacy Officer is Lance Boer. Lance answers privacy questions, requests, and complaints, and is accountable for how we handle personal information. To reach Lance:

• Email: info@risealberni.org, with “Privacy” in the subject line
• Phone or text: 877 281-2450
• Mail: Lance Boer, Privacy Officer, RISE Alberni, 4511 Gertrude St, Port Alberni, BC V9Y 6J9

What We Promise Everyone

• We collect only what we need for the thing you asked us to do.
• We tell you why we are collecting something when we collect it, and we use it only for that purpose unless you agree to a new one.
• We do not sell, rent, or trade personal information, including contact lists and donor lists.
• Staff, tutors, and volunteers see only what they need for their own work.
• We do not refuse you a service because you declined to give us information we do not need.
• We do not pass your information to another organization unless you ask us to or agree to it. Usually we give you their contact details and you decide.

Consent

We collect, use, and share personal information with your consent, given in writing, out loud, or online. Sometimes consent is implied: if you send us a message, you are agreeing to let us write back. For anything sensitive, or anything you would not expect, we ask you directly.

You can withdraw your consent at any time by telling us, unless that would break a law or an agreement we have with you. We will tell you what it changes. For example, we cannot tutor a student without their enrolment details.

When we may act without consent

PIPA allows this only in specific situations. The ones that could come up for us:

• A law, court order, subpoena, or warrant requires it.
• Someone's health or safety is at immediate risk, including our legal duty to report a child who may need protection.
• We need it to collect a debt you owe us, or to pay one we owe you.
• It is about someone who works or volunteers for us, and we need it to manage that relationship. We tell them first.

If You Use This Website

This site has no accounts, no logins, and no payments. Nothing about you as a visitor is stored here, apart from what the tools below collect.

Forms

Our contact, inquiry, application, and sponsorship forms ask for your name and email, sometimes your phone number, and whatever you choose to write in the message box. We use it to answer you and to work out which program fits.

Forms are handled by Netlify, which stores what you send on servers in the United States and emails it to us. Please do not use a web form to send health details, immigration details, financial details, or anything else you would not want stored there. Call or text us instead.

The one exception is the RSVP form for our cooking nights. It asks about food allergies and accessibility needs so we can plan a safe meal and room for you. You can leave those blank and call us with them instead.

Server logs

Netlify, which hosts this site, automatically records the technical details of each visit, such as IP address, browser type, and the page requested, for security and reliability.

Analytics

We use Google Analytics to see which pages people find useful and where they get stuck. It sets cookies and records the pages you view, roughly how long you stay, your approximate location from your IP address, and your device and browser. Google processes this on its own servers, including in the United States. We do not run advertising pixels, build advertising profiles, or connect analytics to anything you send through a form.

To turn analytics off, block or delete cookies in your browser, or use any standard content blocker. Google also offers a browser add-on that opts you out of Google Analytics on every site. If you are not sure how, email us and we will walk you through it.

Video

Our About page has a YouTube video. Nothing loads from YouTube until you press play. Once you do, the video plays from YouTube, which is owned by Google, and YouTube's privacy policy applies.

Children

Our forms are meant for adults. If a young person has sent us something through this site and their parent or guardian wants it removed, email us and we will delete it.

Links

Our resource directory links to many outside websites. Once you follow a link, that site's privacy policy applies.

If Your Child Is in Tutoring

What we collect

About the student: name, date of birth, grade and school, subjects and learning goals, learning needs and accommodations you share with us, allergy and medical information needed for safety, attendance, and session notes.

About parents and guardians: names, contact details, emergency contacts, the people allowed to pick up your child, scheduling, and any fee or financial-assistance arrangement.

Why

To enrol your child, match them with a tutor, schedule and bill sessions, keep your child safe, and tell you how sessions are going. Your child's tutor writes a short, factual note after each session, and we email it to you. If a funder pays for your child's sessions, the funder gets the note too.

If you agree on the consent form, online sessions may be recorded in Microsoft Teams for safety and quality. A recording stays in the tutor's RISE account, is never shared publicly, and is deleted automatically after 120 days, unless a safety concern means we keep it with the incident record.

Who sees it

Your child's tutor sees what they need to teach your child and keep them safe, never your fees or financial arrangements. The Program Lead, the Receptionist, and the Privacy Officer see what their jobs require. We never tell anyone outside RISE about a fee or subsidy arrangement.

Tutoring records are kept in Cedarline, our tutoring records system. Session notes and invoices are emailed through Cakemail, and card payments go through Helcim. Emails you exchange with us are kept in our Microsoft 365 email. Where each one stores data is in section 9.

Consent for children and youth

A parent or guardian consents for a student when they enrol. A young person who is old enough to understand what they are agreeing to, often around age 12 or older, may have their own say under PIPA, including over who sees their information. We take direction from them as well as from their parent or guardian.

BC's Child, Family and Community Service Act requires us to report a concern that a child may need protection. That duty overrides everything else on this page.

If You Join an English Class or Another Program

What we collect

When you register for English classes: your name, how to reach you, your language, your emergency contact, allergies and medical or accessibility needs, your English goals, and when you can come. We use it to place you in a group, keep you safe in sessions, and follow up with you. If you agree, we share your first name and contact details with the others in your group.

When you ask for settlement help, such as help with forms, appointments, or finding services, we keep short notes about what you asked for and what we did, so the next person helping you knows where things stand.

For skills, employment, and community programs and events, we keep what you give us to sign up: your name, how to reach you, and an emergency contact when the activity needs one.

For cooking nights, which we run with the Alberni Valley Food Security Society, we also ask about foods you don't eat, food allergies, accessibility needs, and photos. The cook gets a head count and the allergies and foods to avoid, without names.

Your immigration status

If you ask us to help you find other programs, we may ask about your immigration status. Some programs are only for certain people, such as temporary foreign workers or permanent residents, so your answer tells us where to send you. You can choose not to answer, and we will still help as much as we can.

We use your status only inside RISE, to find the right help for you. We never share it with anyone outside RISE, including government, an employer, or another program, unless you tell us yes first, or a court order or law requires it. Only the Volunteer Coordinator and the volunteer helping you with settlement see it.

Funders, partners, and our insurer

Some funders, partner organizations, and our insurer ask how many people we served and in what general groups. We give them counts only, never your name or your file, unless you agree or the law requires it.

These records are kept in our Microsoft 365 account. Where that stores data is in section 9.

If You Tutor, Work, or Volunteer With Us

Applicants: your application, the subjects or duties you are interested in, references, and interview notes. We use them to decide whether to bring you on and where you fit.

Tutors and staff: your contact details, criminal record check result, employment agreement, and payroll details, including your social insurance number and banking information, for pay and T4 slips.

Volunteers: your application, availability, emergency contact, training, and hours. For screening, we record that a satisfactory criminal record check was received and its date. We do not keep the certificate.

Under PIPA, we may collect and use what we reasonably need to manage a working or volunteer relationship without asking your consent, as long as we tell you first. Our application forms and agreements do that.

If You Give or Sponsor

Our sponsorship form asks for your name, email, and, if you like, the name of your business or group. If you give, we record the amount and date so we can send an invoice or acknowledgment and keep proper financial records.

We do not take payments on this website. Gifts arrive by e-transfer or cheque and are handled by our bank and our accounting records. We never share donor lists.

Where Information Is Stored

We use outside services to store and send information. Each one handles it only for our purposes and under safeguards.

• Cedarline, our tutoring records, scheduling, and invoicing system, and its nightly backups: on a Hetzner server in the European Union.
• Cakemail, which sends tutoring reminders, session notes, and invoices, and our emails to whole groups of families or learners: in Canada.
• Microsoft 365, our staff email, file storage, and Teams recordings of online tutoring sessions, including records for English classes, settlement help, other programs, staff, and volunteers: in Canada. Microsoft keeps staff sign-in records in the United States.
• Helcim, which processes card payments for tutoring: in Canada and the United States.
• Wagepoint, which runs payroll for tutors and staff: in Canada and the United States.
• Netlify, which hosts this website and its forms: in the United States.
• Google Analytics, for website statistics: in the United States and elsewhere.

Information stored outside Canada falls under that country's laws, so its courts and government agencies can demand it.

Paper forms, such as signed consents, are kept in a locked file cabinet at our office.

How Long We Keep It

We keep information only as long as we need it or the law requires, then destroy it securely or strip out anything that identifies a person. Nothing is destroyed while a complaint, claim, investigation, or request to see records is open. Information we used to make a decision about you is kept at least one year, so you have time to ask to see it.

• Inquiries that do not lead anywhere: 1 year.
• Tutoring records: 3 years after the last session, or until the student turns 21, whichever is later. BC's time limit for legal claims does not start for a child until they turn 19.
• Recordings of online tutoring sessions: 120 days, unless a safety concern means we keep one with the incident record.
• English class, settlement, and other program records: 3 years after your last contact with us.
• Invoices, payments, and gifts: 6 years after the end of the year they relate to, as the Canada Revenue Agency requires.
• Applications we did not take forward: 1 year.
• Staff files: 7 years after employment ends. Payroll records: 4 years after employment ends or 6 years after the tax year, whichever is later. Volunteer files: 3 years after the volunteer leaves.
• Screening and training records for anyone in a program role: 33 years after they leave. Records of an incident or an abuse allegation: permanently.

Our full Records Retention Schedule is available from the Privacy Officer.

How We Protect It

• Access is limited to the people who need it, and every tutor, staff member, and volunteer signs a Privacy & Confidentiality Agreement.
• Program information stays in RISE accounts, never in personal email, personal cloud storage, or messaging apps like WhatsApp.
• Every RISE account needs a password and multi-factor sign-in, and this whole website uses encrypted connections.
• Paper files are kept in a locked file cabinet at our office.

If something goes wrong

If personal information is lost, stolen, or seen by someone who should not have it, the Privacy Officer investigates and we contain the problem. If it creates a real risk of significant harm, we tell the people affected, and we report it to the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for BC where that is required or appropriate.

No system is perfectly secure. Email and web forms travel across networks we do not control, so please keep sensitive details out of them.

Photos and Stories

We use a photo, video, or story that identifies someone only with their written permission, given separately from anything else. For anyone under 19, we need their parent or guardian's. Saying no changes nothing about the services you get, and you can change your mind later; we will take published images down where we can.

At community events, signs tell you when photos are being taken, we favour crowd shots, and we keep a no-photo list that photographers follow.

Seeing and Correcting Your Information

You can ask us for:

• A copy of the personal information we hold about you, or about your child as their parent or guardian.
• How we have used it.
• Who we have shared it with.

Send your request in writing to the Privacy Officer at info@risealberni.org or by mail. We may ask you to confirm who you are first, so we do not hand your information to someone else.

We respond within 30 business days. PIPA lets us take up to 30 more in limited cases; if we need to, we will tell you why and when to expect an answer. Access is normally free, and always free when staff ask for their own employment records. If a request takes a lot of work, we may charge a small fee, and we will give you a written estimate first and wait for your approval.

Sometimes the law does not let us release something, for example where it would reveal information about another person. If we refuse, we tell you in writing, explain why, name the part of PIPA we are relying on, and tell you how to ask for a review.

Corrections

If something we hold about you is wrong, tell us. If we agree, we fix it and send the corrected version to anyone we shared the old one with in the past year. If we do not agree, we add a note to your file saying what you asked for.

Questions and Complaints

Start with the Privacy Officer at info@risealberni.org, 877 281-2450, or 4511 Gertrude St, Port Alberni, BC V9Y 6J9. Tell us what happened and what you would like us to do. We will look into it and answer you in writing.

If we cannot resolve it, or you disagree with our answer, you can complain to the provincial regulator:

• Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner for British Columbia
• PO Box 9038 Stn Prov Govt, Victoria, BC V8W 9A4
• Phone: 250 387-5629
• Email: info@oipc.bc.ca
• Website: oipc.bc.ca

Complaining costs nothing and does not affect the services you get from us.

Changes to This Policy

We update this policy when our practices change. The date at the top of the page shows the last change.

If we want to use information we already hold for a new purpose, we will ask you first.