Safety and trust

Organizations join by invitation only. Before any of an organization's listings can be seen, its details are confirmed directly with a person there, by phone or by email. An organization whose details can't be confirmed stays hidden.

This confirms that the organization is real and that the contact on file answers. It is not a background check, a site visit or an endorsement. Each organization agrees, in the terms of use, that it screens and supervises its own volunteers and carries the insurance its activities need.

A listing is checked before it goes live. It has to be genuine volunteering, not work that would normally be paid. It has to show a minimum age, and that age has to be legal for the work under Ontario's minimum working ages. Organizations may not ask applicants for health information, financial details, identity documents or anything else they don't need.

Niagara Regional Police generally won't issue a police record check to anyone under 18 for a volunteer role outside government. So for most students a police check isn't possible, and what protects them is supervision by the organization's own screened adults.

When an organization marks a listing as needing a police check, that's the organization's rule for that role. Students under 18 should ask the organization how it handles that before applying.

• Students never make an account. They apply through a short form.
• Applicants must be 13 or older. The site asks for a birth year only, uses it for that check, and never stores it.
• A phone number is only asked for when the organization turns that on for a listing. Parent or guardian contact details are optional.
• An application goes only to the organization it was sent to.
• Applications are deleted automatically after 12 months.
• Anyone can ask for their information to be deleted sooner by emailing privacy@niagaravolunteer.ca.

The privacy policy lists everything collected and every company that helps run the site.

Only organizations and NVO's administrator have accounts. An organization can only see its own listings and its own applicants. That rule is enforced by the database itself, not just by the website, so a mistake in a page can't show one organization's applicants to another.

Every listing has a report link, and reports go straight to Dax, who runs NVO. Use it if a listing asks for money, wants information it has no reason to need, looks like an unpaid job, or makes you uncomfortable. For anything urgent or anything about a person's safety, contact the police first.

You can also email dax@paragonmediacanada.ca about anything on the site.

• Get your principal's approval before you start if the hours are for your diploma.
• Tell a parent or guardian where you're going and when.
• Expect an adult from the organization to be there.
• Never pay to volunteer, and never hand over ID documents or bank details.