Last revised March 2007You are here: halton information providers → terms of use
Halton Information Providers (HIP) collect, maintain and disseminate human service information that enables people to make informed choices to improve their quality of life.
HIP brings people and services together through our individual service centres, database and publications. Human services cover a broad range of programs and services, from access to basic necessities of life to enhancement of personal and social growth. These services may be provided by community, social service, health, government or commercial organizations.
The information and referral (I&R) that HIP provides through the individual centres includes information and referral to services available for Halton residents.
HIP sets policies, priorities and procedures for collection and maintaining information about programs and services in the database, publications and web sites. In general, HIP provides:
As individual and community needs change over time, priorities are modified to respond to emerging needs. In addition, through partnerships, collaborative projects and funding arrangements, priorities are adjusted according to agreements with other agencies, staffing levels and funding contingencies, as well as the ability of other organizations to collect and maintain information in certain areas.
As members of InformOntario, the provincial association of community information centres, InformCanada, the national federation of information and referral providers and of the Alliance of Information and Referral Systems (AIRS) our international partner, we subscribe to the policies, principles and standards of those organizations.
If you have any questions about linking to the Halton Community Services Database or copying information from the database, please contact us.
Copyright ©2003 Halton Community Services Database. All rights reserved.
The Halton Information Providers, operating as a coalition of Information Burlington, Information Milton, Information Oakville, and Links2Care owns the intellectual property rights, including copyright, in and to this Site. As a user of this Site, you are granted a limited licence to use (display or print) a reasonable number of search results for your own personal, non-commercial use only, provided the information is not modified. You shall be fully responsible for any consequences resulting from such use. Any other use of the information is prohibited. None of the information may be otherwise reproduced, republished or re-disseminated in any manner or form without the prior written consent of Halton Information Providers.
HIP retains the right to take appropriate legal action to enforce its rights.
HIP disclaims any liability for unauthorized use or reproduction of any portion of this Site.
HIP encourages organizations to use this Site as a central collection of quality information. If you would like to link to this site, we recommend that you:
The structure of the Thesaurus used to index the services and definitions of the terms contained herein was originally published in the Information and Referral Thesaurus, First Edition, 1996. No part of this thesaurus of human services terms and definitions 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 prior written permission of InformOntario.
Certain words, phrases, names, designs or logos used on the Site may constitute trademarks, service marks or trade names ofHIPor other entities. The display of any such marks or names on the Site does not imply that HIP or other entities have granted a licence or authorization of any kind.
No part of the Site should be taken to constitute an offer or solicitation to buy or sell products or services.
Inclusion of an organization and information about its programs and services on this Site does not imply endorsement by HIP, nor does exclusion indicate lack of endorsement.
The Site may contain links to other sites. These links are provided as references to help you identify and locate other Internet resources that may be of interest. Parties other than HIP independently developed these other sites and thereforeHIPdoes not assume responsibility for the accuracy or appropriateness of the information contained on such sites. In providing links to other sites,HIPis not acting as a publisher or disseminator of the material contained on these other sites and does not seek to control the content of, or maintain any type of editorial control over, such sites. A link to another site should not be construed to mean thatHIPis 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 sites. In addition, the mention of another party or its products or services on the Site should not be construed as an endorsement of that party or its products or services.
The information on the Site is provided for educational or information purposes only. It is not intended to provide medical, legal or professional advice whatsoever and should not be relied upon in that respect.
HIP does not guarantee the quality, accuracy, completeness or timeliness of the information. While every effort has been made to ensure the information is accurate, the site may contain typographical or other errors and should not be assumed to be error-free.
HIP is not responsible for any content or information that you may find undesirable or objectionable.
HIP is not responsible for any direct, 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 Site or in reliance on the information available on the Site, including the loss of use, lost date, lost business profits, business interruption, personal injury, or any other personal or pecuniary loss, whether the action is in contract, tort (including negligence) or other tortious action.
Inclusion in the Halton Community Services database is free and completely unrelated to whether an organization is a partner in any collaboration of HIP.
Inclusion in theHIPdatabase does not imply endorsement nor does exclusion indicate lack of endorsement. HIP does not make comparative judgments of the quality of service provided by organizations in the database. Staff does not recommend services.
The Halton Community Services Database includes organizations or programs located in or serving the Region of Halton that are:
The following commercial organizations are included:
For communities outside Halton Region, HIP lists only critical services which are not available in Halton or services regularly used by Halton residents.
HIP sets first and second priorities for information collection. 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, HIP may collect representative or umbrella groups, or refer to other telephone or Internet-based services.
HIP gives first priority to basic subsistence and survival related services, including:
HIP gives second priority to the following quality of life services:
HIP also gives first priority to services for people who may experience barriers to service because of:
A service must be available to all or part of the population of Halton Region, unless it falls into one of the exceptions listed.
When a service has a local branch as well as a regional, provincial or national office in Halton, all branches in Halton are listed. Provincial or national offices outside Halton may also be listed if they provide essential services not available at the local branches. Services outside Canada will be included only if providing a unique service.
Services must be available to the community-at-large. Organizations that provide services only to their own members are excluded, unless membership is available to the community at large, and membership fees (as opposed to service fees) are minimal or on a sliding scale. Associations of human service workers whose purpose is to serve the community, may be included, even if services are only to their own members.
Organizations that demonstrate stability in providing services will be included. Stability is evaluated by many factors, including length of time in existence, the existence of staff, a permanent office, an established and secure funding base or the support of an established parent organization, and/or registered charitable status. Exceptions may be made in emerging or under-funded service areas.
The criteria for self-help groups may vary. They may be included if they have been in existence for at least a year and there is a regular contact person even if they do not meet all the above requirements.
A service should be accessible to the public either in person, by telephone or by mail, including e-mail.
HIP reserves the right to exclude from its database any organization that HIP has adequate reason to believe may contravene the Ontario Human Rights Code or the Canadian Charter of Rights.
Potential grounds for exclusion or removal from the database may include, but are not limited to, service non-delivery, fraud, and misrepresentation, discrimination, spreading hatred or criminal activities.
HIP 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 HIP itself.
Decisions to include, exclude, or remove a service listing may be appealed by writing to HIP after a reasonable attempt has been made to resolve the issue with staff.
In responding to inquiries that are beyond the scope of its own database, HIP centres will refer to secondary resources such as web sites and databases of other information centres. These resources will need to meet the standard criteria of being accurate, comprehensive and up-to-date.
When HIP does not have the staff resources to maintain comprehensive information, it may refer to other organizations or web sites that provide specialized 1&R services.
The Database collection policy is reviewed every two years by the HIP executive committee.
The policy is included in the Database Staff Policies and Procedures Manual and is also available online on theHIPwebsite at http://hipinfo.info/terms.htm. The policy is also linked to the top of the public �Suggest a New Record� form, available at the following url: http://search.hipinfo.info/feedback.asp.
Requests for inclusion in the database can be made to any HIP partner organization either verbally or by submitting the �Suggest a New Record� form from the website or database.
Second priority records may be added and made available to those who deem them necessary.
Most organizations listed are asked annually to complete a written questionnaire or to update their information by telephone, fax or e-mail. 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 changes are inevitable.
HIP encourages organizations to use this Site to notify the editorial team of service changes throughout the year. Please see Help - Updating Information for instructions.
HIP 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 HIP.
Changes submitted will not appear immediately on the Site. Information is currently updated once a week after editorial review.
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.
Halton's four community information centres and referral lines offer confidential service, andHIPstrives to ensure similar confidentiality in e-mail communication concerning community services. Nevertheless, absent the use of encryption, the Internet is not a secure medium and privacy cannot be ensured. Internet e-mail is vulnerable to interception and forging.HIPwill 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 HIP, or that you expressly or implicitly authorizeHIPto make, or for any errors or any changes made to any transmitted information.
HIP does not use “cookies” or other tracking methods to gather data on Internet users. It does measure overall site usage but does not collect or maintain information on the identity of such users.
All information submitted by organizations about their services toHIPvia the Site shall be deemed and remain the property of HIP.HIPshall be free to use, for any purpose, any ideas, concepts, know-how or other techniques contained in information provided toHIPthrough the Site or sent through e-mail.HIPshall not be subject to any obligations of confidentiality regarding any such information submitted to it unless specifically agreed to by HIP, or required by law.
HIP may use comments submitted by users about the Site for promotional purposes.HIPwill seek written permission of the user before publishing his or her personal name, organization or program name or direct comment.HIPmay combine comments and attribute them to pseudonyms without seeking permission of the users.
While every effort is made to ensure that all information provided on the Site does not contain computer viruses, you should take reasonable and appropriate precautions to scan for computer viruses and should ensure that you have a complete and current backup of the applicable items or information contained on your computer system. You should pay specific attention to some of the newer viruses that have been written to automatically execute when an infected word processing document is loaded into certain word processing programs.
The laws of the province of Ontario and the laws of Canada applicable therein shall govern as to the interpretations, validity and effect of this agreement notwithstanding any conflict of laws of your domicile, residence or physical location. You hereby consent and submit 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.
Originally published 2003 Last revised March 2007