We are Strongest Families Institute (“SFI”), a charitable organization providing mental health educational services for children, youth, adults and families and individuals. This Privacy Notice outlines our practices with respect to the collection, use, retention, and disclosure of personal information, including:

• Information obtained from your direct use of our public website, www.strongestfamilies.com (our “Site”)
• Information obtained from your direct use of our mental health educational services (our “Services”), whether provided over the phone or through our Strongest Families App (our “App”), which is available on the web and from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store
• Information obtained indirectly from third parties that you have authorized to provide information to us, such as referral agents, provincial or territorial health associations and/or health care providers

This Notice also outlines the choices you have relating to your personal information, or if you are a parent or guardian of a child receiving Services, relating to the personal information of that child.

If at any time you wish to share with us sensitive information, such as personal information about you or your child, please do so only via secure channels such as our App’s integrated messaging feature.

By visiting our Site, using our App, or by otherwise using our Services, you agree to the provisions of this Privacy Notice.

Privacy Best Practices – Guiding Principles

Within this Privacy Notice, “Personal Information” or “PI” means information, in any form, about an identifiable individual, or information that in combination with other readily available information, may identify an individual. PI may include personal health information.

SFI’s guiding principles for privacy best practice are drawn from the CSA Model Code for the Protection of Personal Information, the standard upon which Canadian privacy laws are based. SFI’s practices are as follows:

Accountability

SFI is accountable for the PI that it collects, uses and discloses, and it maintains accountability over all data handled by a service provider.

Identifying Purposes

When we collect PI, we strive to be transparent about the purposes for which the information is being collected. We do not collect PI for any purposes other than those purposes identified at or before the time of collection and as described in this Notice.

Consent

Before or at the time we collect PI from you, we will obtain your consent for the collection, use and disclosure of your Personal Information. At any time, you may withdraw your consent to further use or disclosure of your PI by contacting us using the information provided in this Privacy Notice.

Limiting Collection, Use, Disclosure and Retention

We adhere to the principle of data minimization and strive to limit the collection, use and disclosure of PI to only the information that is required to effectively deliver our Services or to fulfill other critical business needs. See below for more detail regarding our collection, use and disclosure of Personal Information when we provide our Services to you.

We do not collect Social Insurance Numbers, health card details, banking or credit card information, or any similar sensitive information that is not directly necessary to facilitate delivery of our Services.

We only retain PI for as long as necessary to achieve the purposes for which it was collected. Once PI is no longer necessary, we destroy or de-identify it in accordance with our data retention policies.

Safeguards

We implement robust technical and organizational measures to protect Personal Information from unauthorized access, disclosure, alteration, or destruction. We understand that the Personal Information we are entrusted with is of a sensitive nature, and the safeguards we employ to protect this information will align with its sensitivity. Only those who have a need to access particular Personal Information in order to provide Services have access to the information. All SFI employees and those providing Services are trained in the importance of privacy in all aspects of their work.

We follow industry best practices and standards to ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of your Personal Information. Our security measures include but are not limited to:

• Encryption: We employ encryption techniques to safeguard your data during transmission and storage.
• Access Control: We restrict access to Personal Information to authorized personnel only, ensuring that it is accessible on a need-to-know basis.
• IT Security: We employ technological safeguards including security software and firewalls to prevent unauthorized computer access.
• Premises Security: Any physical documents that may include Personal Information are secured with physical measures including locked filing cabinets and restricted access to offices.
• Regular Audits: We conduct regular internal and external security audits and assessments to identify and address any vulnerabilities or risks.
• Employee Training: Our employees undergo comprehensive data protection training to ensure they understand the importance of data security and privacy.

We are committed to continuously enhancing our security practices and staying up to date with the latest industry standards to provide a secure environment for your Personal Information.

Access and Correction

You have the right to review any of your Personal Information in our possession, subject to limitations allowed by law. If you wish to obtain access to your own Personal Information, or if you have any questions or concerns about our Personal Information handling practices, you may contact us at any time by emailing us at privacyofficer@strongestfamilies.com. We may ask you to provide sufficient information to verify your identity before access to any Personal Information is granted. Any such identity verification information will only be used for this purpose.

If your Personal Information is incorrect, you may log into your account and correct it, or you may ask us in writing to correct it.

Collection, Use and Disclosure of Personal Information

When you visit our Site or use our App

When you visit our Site or use our App, certain Personal Information may be gathered automatically, such as your IP address, usage information, login attempts, or details about the web browser or device you are using. This information may be used to enhance your user experience; for example, by remembering your preferences for future visits or by displaying content in your preferred language. This information may also be included in aggregate data sets for the purpose of monitoring usage, analyzing performance, or identifying technical problems.

Cookies

Our Site and our App may use “cookies” to identify you when you visit our Site or use our App.

A Cookie is a small file of letters and numbers that we may set on your device to store and sometimes track information about you. Cookies and similar technologies we use are designed for “analytics”. This allows us to distinguish you from other users of the Site and App. This helps us to provide you with a good experience when you use our Site and App.

We use the following Cookies:

• Strictly Necessary Cookies. These are Cookies that are required for the operation of our Site. They include, for example, Cookies that enable you to remember information you have typed into an online form.
• Preference/Functionality Cookies. These Cookies allow a website to remember the choices a user has made in the past, like what language the user prefers or what the user’s name and password are so that the user can automatically log in.
• Statistics/Performance Cookies. They allow us to recognize and count the number of visitors and to see how visitors move around our Site when they are using it. This helps us to improve the way our Site works, for example, by ensuring that users are finding what they are looking for easily.

You may choose to opt out of or decline the use of cookies, which may result in an inability to use our Site or impaired performance of our website.

Links to third-party websites

Our Site and our App may include links to external websites owned by third parties. While we endeavor to encourage privacy best practices with our third-party affiliates through contractual or other means, this Privacy Notice applies only to our Site and our App, and we are not responsible for the policies and practices of any such third-party websites. We encourage you to read the privacy notices of these third parties in order to understand their privacy policies and practices.

When you use our Services

Your SFI Account

You may be provided an “SFI Account” to facilitate accessing our Services via our App. You will be issued a username and asked to create a password that you can use to log in to your SFI Account. To protect your privacy, we recommend that you do not share or disclose these credentials to anyone.

Referral and intake

Upon referral to our Services (whether you self-refer or are referred by a third party with your authorization) you will be asked to complete an intake questionnaire. You may complete the questionnaire via our App, or by asking us to contact you to complete the questionnaire via telephone or teleconference. The intake questionnaire involves the collection of Personal Information about you (and/or your child, if the referral is for a pediatric Service). The specific information we collect will vary depending on which of our Services you are referred for, but may include the following:

Required information

Certain Personal Information is required to allow us to process your referral and deliver our Services:

• Your contact information, such as email address, telephone number and mailing address. This information is used to communicate with you during delivery of the Services and to send you Service program materials.
• Certain personal details that help identify you (or your child), such as legal name and date of birth. This information is used to ensure that you are eligible for Services and that you are enrolled in a suitable Service program.
• Certain Personal Health Information, such as information regarding the mental health challenges for which you are seeking intervention. This information is used to ensure that you are enrolled in a suitable Service program and intensity level.

Optional information

You are invited to share additional information with us on a voluntary basis to improve the effectiveness of your intervention and to help us improve our Services more broadly.

• Other personal details, such as your gender. This information may be used to automatically personalize your program materials to make them more relevant to you.
• Other Personal Health Information, such as information about a medical diagnosis. This information may help us ensure that you are enrolled in a suitable Service program and intensity level.
• Demographic information, such as ethnicity, income level or occupational field, education level or marital status. This information is used in aggregate to help us determine the effectiveness of our Services in different populations so that we can improve our Services for members of these populations in the future.

Service program participation

If you are deemed eligible to receive Services and you decide to participate, you will be enrolled in a suitable Service program. We will use the Personal Information obtained from the intake questionnaire to facilitate delivering the Service program. You will also be invited to share additional Personal Information as you progress through the Service program. The specific information we collect will vary depending on which Service program you are participating in, but may include the following:

• Your responses to questions we ask in the program sessions. These responses are used to validate your understanding of the concepts and skills taught in the Sessions, and to further personalize your program content to make it more relevant to your circumstances (e.g. by referencing specific examples you provide or creating a personalized plan for applying the skills you learn).
• Details about the symptoms you are experiencing and the effects on those symptoms of applying the skills taught in the sessions. This information may be collected regularly (e.g. daily via our tracker feature) and/or at specific intervals (e.g. via a more in-depth questionnaire when you complete the program). This information is used to assess your progress and the effectiveness of the program.

If you are enrolled in a Service program with individual or group coaching:

• You may optionally decide to share other Personal Information with your assigned coach, either by telephone or via our App’s secure messaging feature.
• Your assigned coach may record information about the recommendations they make to you and your progress within the program.

Analysis of aggregate information

De-identified information may be included in aggregate data sets for the purpose of conducting internal analysis of our Services, including assessing the effectiveness of our Services overall and/or within certain populations or cohorts and/or to inform program improvements. Any publications would not in any way identify individuals as the data is de-identified.

Other purposes for use of Personal Information

We may also use your Personal Information for the following purposes:

• To provide technical support to you.
• To notify you about changes to our Services.
• To solicit your feedback regarding our Services.

Disclosure of Personal Information

Disclosure to SFI staff

Within our organization, your Personal Information will be disclosed only to those individuals who need access to it to deliver our Services to you, or to fulfill another direct business need, for example:

• Staff members involved in processing your referral and facilitating your intake questionnaire
• Your assigned coach and their supervisor (if applicable), and other staff members involved in your participation in our Service programs
• Staff members involved in providing you technical support

Disclosure to third parties

We may additionally disclose your Personal Information:

• to your legal guardian (if applicable);
• to third parties that you have authorized to provide information to us, such as referral agents, provincial or territorial health associations and/or health care providers;
• to other individuals, if you provide consent;
• when we suspect certain types of abuse, or neglect, or safety issues or to reduce a risk of serious bodily harm to a person or to the public;
• to assist professionals who do health research, provided strict privacy requirements are met; and
• for a legal proceeding, to obey a court order, or to comply with any another legal requirement.

We will never, under any circumstances, sell your Personal Information to third parties.

Transfers out of Quebec

Note that Personal Information may be stored, accessed, used and otherwise processed inside and outside of Quebec. When Personal Information is located outside Quebec, it may be subject to laws that have different standards of protection and may allow for foreign law enforcement and governmental access.

Indigenous Population Information

Some of the Personal Information we collect may be about individuals who exhibit common characteristics that constitute an Indigenous Population. Examples of Indigenous Populations include:

• Members of a First Nation
• A group of Indigenous people of the same nationhood or ancestry (e.g. Cree, Inuit, Mohawk, etc.)
• Individuals residing in a postal code which captures a First Nation community

Within this Privacy Notice, “Indigenous Population Information” (or “IPI”) means information, in any form, predominantly about an Indigenous Population.

The collection and creation of Indigenous Population Information will be limited to only those purposes described in this Privacy Notice, with the prior consent of the individuals providing their Personal Information.

Any analysis of Indigenous Population Information will be conducted with the sole purpose of informing improvements to our Services for the Indigenous Population.

Updates and changes to our Privacy Notice

We review all policies and procedures on a regular basis and may from time to time change and update this Privacy Notice. The date upon which this Privacy Notice has last been updated is below.

Contact us

If you have any questions, concerns, or requests regarding this Privacy Notice, or any other privacy practices, please contact us at:

Strongest Families Institute
2 Dartmouth Road, 3^rd Floor
Bedford, Nova Scotia B4A 2K7
Phone: 1-866-470-7111 ext. 8595

Privacy Officer: Kati LaVigne (privacyofficer@strongestfamilies.com)

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This Privacy Notice was last updated on June 25, 2025.