Terms of Use

Please
read this agreement (the “Agreement”) carefully. It governs your use of
this Website (the “Website”) operated by Findhelp Information Services
(“Findhelp”). The Agreement states the terms and conditions under which
you (the “User”) may access and use the Website and all written and
other materials displayed or made available through the Website,
including, without limitation, information on human services, human
services statistics and critical services such as community information
centres, distress centres, hospital emergency departments and services
for victims of violence and abuse, including sexual assault (the
“Content”). BY ACCESSING AND/OR USING THE WEBSITE, YOU ARE INDICATING
YOUR ACCEPTANCE TO BE BOUND BY THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THIS
AGREEMENT. IF YOU DO NOT ACCEPT THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS, YOU MUST NOT
ACCESS OR USE THE WEBSITE.

Findhelp may unilaterally revise this Agreement from time to time, in
which case we will provide you with a notice of such revision by
posting the amended Agreement on this Website. Use of the Website after
such notice will signify your acceptance of these revised terms. You
should visit this page periodically to review this Agreement.

  1. Listing Inclusion
  2. No Endorsement
  3. Disclaimer
  4. Listing Updates
  5. Linking
  6. Privacy Policy
  7. Ownership and Limited Licence
  8. Trademarks
  9. Prohibited Uses
  10. Limitation of Liability
  11. Indemnity
  12. Security 
  13. Termination
  14. General Provisions
  15. Contact Us

1. Listing Inclusion (reviewed 2020)

1.1 Listing Policy

Findhelp collects, maintains and disseminates human service
information that enables people to make informed choices to improve
their quality of life.

Inclusion in the database of human services listed on the Website is
free and is not dependent upon the purchase of a membership, products or
separate advertising space from Findhelp.

Subject to the priorities detailed in the next section, the database
includes organizations or programs primarily located in or serving the
area that:

  • Provide a direct service to the public
  • Are networks or coalitions of direct service providers
  • Are involved in licensing, planning or coordinating direct services
  • Are not-for-profit, community-based or government organizations
  • Are commercial organizations that provide first priority services not offered by the nonprofit sector
  • Are commercial organizations licenced by the government or with
    special contractual agreements to operate long term care facilities,
    child care centres and certain home care services

Organizations must demonstrate the ability to provide ongoing
reliable services and have an established funding base or the support of
an established parent organization. Exceptions may be made in emerging
or underfunded service areas.

1.2 First and Second Priorities

It is the policy of Findhelp to set first and second priorities for
the listing of services on the Website. For first-priority areas, every
effort is made to have comprehensive listings of all eligible services.
For second-priority areas, collection depends on staff resources,
agreements with other agencies, and the ability of other agencies to
collect and disseminate information. Rather than collect comprehensive
information in second-priority areas, Findhelp may collect information
regarding representative or umbrella groups, or refer Users to other
telephone or Internet-based services.

Findhelp gives first priority to basic subsistence and survival related services, including:

  • Food, clothing and shelter
  • Emergency assistance
  • Crisis intervention
  • Financial assistance
  • Legal and correctional services
  • Victim services
  • Immigrant and refugee services
  • Physical and mental health services
  • Employment and training services
  • Home support
  • Public and specialized transportation
  • Child care
  • Access to permanent affordable housing

Findhelp also gives first priority to services for people who may experience barriers to service because of:

  • Language spoken
  • Ethnocultural group
  • Age, including risk factors associated with infants, children, youth or seniors
  • Low income, unemployment or lack of education or literacy
  • Physical, mental or developmental disabilities
  • Homelessness or social isolation
  • Immigration or refugee status
  • Fear of violence

Findhelp gives second priority to the following quality of life
services, unless they are for people who may experience barriers to
service:

  • Education
  • Recreation
  • Consumer assistance
  • Environment
  • Peace and disarmament
  • International development

1.3 Exclusion

Findhelp reserves the right to exclude from the database any
organization that it has, in its own discretion, adequate reason to
believe may spread hatred or have a philosophy that could be hurtful to
the well-being of individuals, groups or the community as a whole.

Potential grounds for exclusion or removal from the database may
include, but is not limited to, service non-delivery, fraud,
misrepresentation, discrimination, criminal activities, or operating
outside licensing mandates.

Findhelp reserves the right to refuse to list or to discontinue
listings for organizations that have had serious complaints lodged
against them with any regulatory body or with other organizations in the
database providing similar services, or with Findhelp itself.

Decisions to include, exclude, or remove a service listing may be
appealed by writing to Findhelp Information Services after a reasonable
attempt has been made to resolve the issue with the editorial staff.

1.4 Referral to Other Services

Findhelp provides links to external Websites for some frequently
sought services not listed on the Website, such as consulates and
embassies.

Users unable to find the information they need are invited to call 211.

2. No Endorsement

Inclusion of an organization and information about its programs and
services on the Website does not imply endorsement by Findhelp nor does
exclusion indicate lack of endorsement.

Links to other websites are provided to help users locate other
Internet resources that may be of interest. Parties other than Findhelp
independently developed these other Websites and therefore Findhelp does
not assume responsibility for the content of any third party Website,
nor does it make any representation or warranty of any kind regarding
any third-party Website including, without limitation, (i) regarding the
legality, accuracy, reliability, completeness, timeliness or
suitability of any content on such third-party Websites, (ii) regarding
the merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose of any
material, content, software, goods, or services located at or made
available through such third-party Websites, or (iii) that the operation
of such third-party Websites will be uninterrupted or error free, that
defects or errors in such third-party Websites will be corrected, or
that such third-party Websites will be free from viruses or other
harmful components.

In providing links to other Websites, Findhelp is not acting as a
publisher or disseminator of the material contained on these other
Websites and does not seek to control the content of, or maintain any
type of editorial control over, such Websites. A link to another Website
should not be construed to mean that Findhelp is associated with or is
legally authorized to use any trademark, trade name, logo or copyrighted
symbol that may be reflected in the link or the description of the link
to such other Websites. In addition, the mention of another party or
its products or services on the Website should not be construed as an
endorsement of that party or its products or services.

3. Disclaimer

The information on the Website is provided for information purposes
only. It is not intended to provide medical, legal or professional
advice whatsoever and should not be relied upon in that respect.

THE WEBSITE AND THE CONTENT IS PROVIDED “AS IS”. WHILE FINDHELP
ENDEAVOURS TO PROVIDE INFORMATION THAT IS CORRECT, ACCURATE AND TIMELY,
FINDHELP MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED,
REGARDING THE WEBSITE AND THE CONTENT INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, NO
REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY THAT (I) THE CONTENT CONTAINED IN OR MADE
AVAILABLE THROUGH THE WEBSITE WILL BE FIT FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, (II)
THE WEBSITE OR CONTENT WILL BE ACCURATE, COMPLETE, CURRENT, RELIABLE,
OR TIMELY, (III) THAT THE OPERATION OF THE WEBSITE WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED
OR ERROR-FREE, (IV) THAT DEFECTS OR ERRORS IN THE WEBSITE OR THE
CONTENT, BE IT HUMAN OR COMPUTER ERRORS, WILL BE CORRECTED, (V) THAT THE
WEBSITE WILL BE FREE FROM VIRUSES OR HARMFUL COMPONENTS, AND (VI) THAT
COMMUNICATIONS TO OR FROM THE WEBSITE WILL BE SECURE AND/OR NOT
INTERCEPTED.

4. Listing Updates

The information on the Website is verified with each listed
organization at least annually. In addition, the editorial team monitors
service changes, and major changes are made as soon as the information
is known and verified with the service provider. Nevertheless, community
services change so rapidly that some omissions and inaccuracies are
inevitable.

Findhelp encourages organizations to use the Website to notify the
editorial team of service changes throughout the year by using the
update information option found on all records on the Website. Findhelp
reserves the right to verify each change with the service provider.

The amount of detail, the language used and the presentation of
information in describing a service or organization is at the discretion
of Findhelp.

Changes submitted will not appear automatically or immediately on the
Website. Changes are first verified and processed by staff, with the
data on this Website refreshed once a day.

5. Linking

Findhelp encourages organizations to use the Website as a central
collection of quality information. If you would like to link to the
Website, we request that you:

  • Inform us that you are creating a link by sending a message to [email protected].
    Please indicate the URL of the page where the link will be placed. We
    will add you to our e-mail list to provide you with automatic updates
    about this Website; and
  • Link to the Website home page instead of specific pages within the Website.

While Findhelp encourages links to the Website, it does not wish
to be linked to or from any third-party Website which contains, posts
or transmits any unlawful information of any kind, including, without
limitation, any content i) that constitutes or encourages conduct that
would constitute a criminal offence, give rise to civil liability or
otherwise violate any local, state, provincial, national or
international law or regulation; ii) that may be damaging or detrimental
to the activities, operations, credibility or integrity of Findhelp; or
iii) that contains, posts or transmits any information, software or
other material which violates or infringes upon the rights of others,
including material which is an invasion of privacy or publicity rights,
or which is protected by copyright, trademark or other proprietary
rights.

Findhelp reserves the right to prohibit or refuse to accept any link
to the Website, including, without limitation, any link which contains
or makes available any content or information of the foregoing nature,
at any time. You agree to remove any link you may have to the Website
upon the request of Findhelp.

The framing, mirroring and deeplinking of the Website or any of its
Content in any form and by any method is strictly prohibited. You may
not cause any advertisement including any pop-up or banner advertisement
to appear at, or on, or after exiting, the Website.

6. Privacy Policy

6.1 Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act

This material is intended for general information purposes only and
should not be distributed, copied or disclosed to anyone else. Its
contents are protected by privilege, and all rights to privilege are
expressly claimed and not waived. Further, any information that is
confidential or personal will be subject to the FOIPP Act and other
relevant legislation.

6.2 Confidentiality Warning

Findhelp strives to ensure confidentiality in its communications
(web, email, chat and text). Nevertheless the Internet should not be
considered a secure medium and privacy cannot be guaranteed. Findhelp
will not be responsible for any damages you or any third party may
suffer as a result of the transmission of confidential information that
you make to Findhelp, or that you expressly or implicitly authorize
Findhelp to make, or for any errors or any changes made to any
transmitted information.

The Site measures site visits but does not collect or maintain information on the identity of such users.

6.3 Submissions

Findhelp shall be free to use, for any purpose, any ideas, concepts,
know-how or other techniques contained in information provided to
Findhelp through the Site or sent through email. Findhelp shall not be
subject to any obligations of confidentiality regarding any such
information submitted to it unless specifically agreed to by Findhelp,
or required by law.

Findhelp may use comments submitted by users about the Site for
promotional purposes. Findhelp will seek written permission of the user
before publishing his or her personal name, organization or program name
or direct comment. Findhelp may combine comments and attribute them to
pseudonyms without seeking permission of the users.

7. Ownership and Limited Licence

This Website and its Content are protected by copyright law and are
owned by Findhelp, except where content is identified as the copyright
property of another entity. The Website application and design is the
property of Findhelp. Findhelp grants to the User a limited,
non-transferable and non-exclusive licence to access, view and use
(display or print) a reasonable number of search results for their own
personal, non-commercial use, provided the information is not modified
and that all copyright, trademark and other notices contained in the
Website are maintained. None of the information may be otherwise
reproduced, republished or re-disseminated in any manner or form without
the express prior written consent of Findhelp.

The Website contains public sector Datasets made available under the City of Toronto’s Open Data Licence v2.0.

The system used to index the services on this Website is the Canadian
Taxonomy of Human Services, based on the AIRS/211 Los Angeles County
Taxonomy of Human Services, © 1983-2019. No part of this taxonomy may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or
by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or
otherwise without the express prior written consent of 211 L.A. County. 
Full details are available at http://www.211la.org/?p=997.

To find out how the information on the Website can be customized to your needs, please send an e-mail to [email protected].

8. Trademarks

Certain words, phrases, names, titles, graphics, icons, designs,
logos and trademarks displayed on the Website may constitute registered
or unregistered trademarks, service marks or trade names of Findhelp or
third parties. While certain trademarks of third parties may be used by
Findhelp under licence, the display of any such marks or names on the
Website does not imply that Findhelp or other entities have granted a
licence or authorization of any kind.

Any use of the trade-names, trademarks, service-marks and logos
(collectively “Trademarks”) displayed on the Website, except as
expressly provided in this Agreement, is strictly prohibited. Nothing
appearing on the Website or elsewhere shall be construed as granting, by
implication, estoppel, or otherwise, any licence or right to use any
Trademarks displayed on the Website.

9. Prohibited Uses

The User is prohibited from posting or transmitting on or through the
Website any unlawful, threatening, libelous, defamatory, obscene,
indecent, inflammatory, pornographic or profane material or any material
that could constitute or encourage conduct that would be considered a
criminal offence, give rise to civil liability, or otherwise violate any
law. In addition, the User is prohibited from posting or transmitting
on or through the Website any information which (a) infringes the rights
of others or violates their privacy or publicity rights or (b) is
protected by copyright, trademark or other proprietary right, unless
with the express written consent of the owner of such right.

Furthermore, you may not, nor may you allow others to, directly or indirectly:

  • use the Website in any manner that could damage, disable, overburden or impair it;
  • use the Website or its Content for commercial or philanthropic
    prospection purposes (including by use of unsolicited commercial e-mail
    or SPAM);
  • interfere with the security of, or otherwise abuse, the Website or
    any services, system resources, accounts, servers or networks connected
    to or accessible through the Website or affiliated or linked Websites;
  • disrupt or interfere with any other person’s use or enjoyment of the Website or affiliated or linked Websites;
  • upload, post or otherwise transmit on the Website any items,
    including without limitation computer viruses, Trojan horses, worms or
    other harmful, disruptive or destructive files or computer programs; or
  • use any robot, spider or other automatic program or device, or
    manual process to monitor, copy, summarize, or otherwise extract
    information from the Website or the Content in whole or in part.

You agree that you are solely responsible for all your actions
and communications undertaken or transmitted in the course of your usage
of the Website, and that you will comply with all applicable laws
concerning the use of or activities on the Website or in respect of the
Content. You shall be solely liable for any damages resulting from any
infringement of copyright, trademark or other proprietary right, or any
other harm resulting from your use of the Website.

10. Limitation of Liability

In no event shall Findhelp be liable for damages of any kind,
including, without limitation, any indirect, special, incidental or
consequential damage or any other damages whatsoever and howsoever
caused, arising out of or in connection with the use of the Website or
in reliance on the information available on the Website, including,
without limitation, any loss of use, lost data, lost business profits,
business interruption or any other loss incurred in connection with the
use or misuse of the Website, regardless of the cause and whether the
action is in contract, tort (including negligence), civil liability or
otherwise. The foregoing limitation shall apply even if Findhelp knew of
or ought to have known of the possibility of such damages.

11. Indemnity

You agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless Findhelp and all
third parties mentioned at the Website, from and against any and all
claims, actions or demands, including without limitation reasonable
legal and accounting fees, resulting from your use of the Website or
your breach of this Agreement.

12. Security

While every effort is made to ensure that all information provided on
the Website does not contain computer viruses, the User should take
reasonable and appropriate precautions to scan the User’s computer
systems for computer viruses and to protect them against the harmful
effects of such viruses, including by means of maintaining a complete
and current backup of the applicable items or information contained on
the User’s computer system.

13. Termination

Findhelp reserves the right to remove and/or disable access to the
Website, with or without notice, to any User who violates this
Agreement. If the User violates any provision of this Agreement, the
User’s permission to use the Content automatically terminates and the
User must immediately destroy any copies it has made of the Content.
Findhelp retains also the right to take any other appropriate legal
actions to enforce its rights and disclaims any liability for
unauthorized use or reproduction of any portion of the Website.

14. General Provisions

The User agrees that all matters relating to the access to, or use of
the Website and its Content shall be governed by the laws of the
Province of Ontario and the laws of Canada notwithstanding any otherwise
applicable conflict of laws rule. The User hereby consents and submits
to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of the Province of
Ontario in any action or proceeding instituted under or related to this
Agreement.

If any provision of this Agreement is found to be unlawful, void or
for any reason unenforceable, then that provision shall be deemed to be
severed from the rest of this Agreement and shall not affect the
validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.

The provisions of this Agreement will inure to the benefit of and be
binding upon the parties and each of their respective successors and
assigns.

No waiver, express or implied, by Findhelp of any breach of or
default by User under this Agreement will constitute a continuing waiver
of such breach or default or be deemed to be a waiver of any preceding
or subsequent breach or default.

Any rights not expressly granted by this Agreement are reserved to Findhelp Information Services.

15. Contact Us

If you are experiencing difficulties in using the Website or if you
have any questions or comments regarding the Website, please contact us
at  [email protected].