Privacy Policy

Last updated: September 2026

Jewish House (ABN 19 350 397 588) (“Jewish House”, “we”, “us” or “our”) is a registered charity providing crisis accommodation, mental health support, family programs, employment support and afterhours crisis services to the Jewish community and broader community in New South Wales.

We are committed to protecting your privacy and handling your personal information responsibly. This Policy explains how we collect, hold, use and disclose personal information — including when you visit our website at www.jewishhouse.org.au (“Site”), make a donation, contact our services, or engage with any of our programs.

We are bound by the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the 13 Australian Privacy Principles (APPs). We recognise the importance of privacy and community awareness regarding the collection, use, disclosure and security of personal (including sensitive) information which we may collect during the course of our many functions.

What personal information we collect

Depending on who you are and how you interact with Jewish House, we may collected personal and sensitive information.
It may include:

Employment and volunteering information — such as your resume, work history and referee details, if you apply for a role, volunteer, or engage with JH Jobs.

Website and technical information — such as your IP address, device and browser type, pages visited, and cookie data (see section 6).

Communications — records of correspondence, feedback, complaints, and calls to our Crisis Line or other services.

Identity and contact information — such as your name, date of birth, address, phone number and email address.

Health and sensitive information — including information you or others provide when accessing crisis support, mental health services, counselling, or afterhours services. This may include information about your mental health, disability, or (where relevant) religious affiliation.

Family and household information — where relevant to accommodation or family support services (JH Kids and related programs).

Financial and donation information — such as payment details, donation history, and billing address, when you make a donation or purchase.

Employment and volunteering information — such as your resume, work history and referee details, if you apply for a role, volunteer, or engage with JH Jobs.

How we collect your information

We generally collect personal information directly from you — for example, when you:

subscribe to our newsletter or communications.
contact our Crisis Line or another service, in person, by phone or online;
complete an intake, referral or enrolment form for one of our programs;
make a donation, sign up to an event, or contact us through the Site;
apply for a job or volunteer role; or

In some circumstances, we may collect personal information from a third party — for example, from a referring agency, family member, medical practitioner, or another support service — where this is necessary to provide safe and effective support, and consistent with the APPs. Where practicable, we will let you know when we collect information about you from someone else.

Why we collect, use and disclose your information

We collect, hold, use and disclose personal information for purposes including:

providing crisis accommodation, mental health, family, employment and other support services;
assessing eligibility for, and coordinating, referrals and support;
processing donations, memberships and event registrations;
recruiting and managing staff and volunteers;
sending communications about our services, appeals, events and impact (you can opt out of marketing communications at any time — see section 10);
complying with our legal, regulatory and reporting obligations, including to funders and government bodies; and
improving our Site, services and programs.

We will not use or disclose your personal information for a purpose other than the purpose for which it was collected, unless you would reasonably expect us to, you have consented, or we are otherwise required or permitted by law.

Sensitive and health information

Some of the information we collect — particularly through our mental health, counselling, crisis and family support services — is “sensitive information” or “health information” under the Privacy Act. This information receives extra protection under Australian Privacy Principle 3.

We only collect sensitive or health information where it is reasonably necessary for our functions or activities, and:

you have consented to its collection; or
collection is otherwise permitted by law (for example, where necessary to prevent a serious threat to life, health or safety).

We take extra care with this information, including limiting access to staff directly involved in your care or support, and applying additional security safeguards described in section 8.

Marketing and fundraising communications

If you provide your contact details (for example, when donating or subscribing), we may send you information about our work, appeals, and events. You can opt out of marketing communications at any time by using the unsubscribe link in any email, or by contacting us using the details in section 16. This does not affect service-related or transactional communications.

Cookies and website analytics

Our Site uses cookies and similar technologies to understand how visitors use the Site and to improve your experience. This may include information such as your IP address, browser and device type, referring pages, and the pages you view.

This information is generally collected on an aggregated or de-identified basis for analytics purposes. You can manage or disable cookies through your browser settings; however, some parts of the Site may not function as intended if you do so.

Disclosure of your information

We may disclose personal information to:

our staff and volunteers who need it to provide services to you;
contracted service providers who help us operate — for example, our donation and payment processing partner, IT and hosting providers, email and CRM platforms;
other organisations involved in your care or referral, with your consent or as otherwise permitted by law;
government or regulatory bodies, where required by law or necessary to protect safety; and
professional advisers (such as our lawyers, auditors or insurers), where reasonably necessary.

We do not sell your personal information. Donations made through the Site are processed by our fundraising and payment partner, currently Fundraise Up & Stripe. Please refer to that provider’s own privacy policy for how they handle your payment details.

Overseas disclosure

Some of the service providers we use to operate the Site and manage donor and client information may store or process personal information outside Australia (for example, on cloud servers located overseas).

Where we disclose personal information to overseas recipients, we take reasonable steps to ensure those recipients handle your information consistently with the Australian Privacy Principles, including through contractual protections.

Data security and retention

We take reasonable technical and organisational steps to protect personal information from misuse, interference, loss, and unauthorised access, modification or disclosure. This includes restricting access to personal information to staff who need it, and using secure systems to store records.

We retain personal information only for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes described in this Policy, or as required by law, our funding agreements, or record-keeping obligations relevant to the community services and health sectors. When information is no longer needed, we take reasonable steps to destroy or de-identify it.

If there is a data breach

If we become aware of a data breach involving your personal information that is likely to result in serious harm, we will notify affected individuals and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC), in line with our obligations under the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme in the Privacy Act.

Access to and correction of your information

You can ask to access the personal information we hold about you and ask us to correct it if you believe it is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete, irrelevant or misleading. To make a request, please contact our Privacy Officer using the details in section 16.

We will respond within a reasonable period. We may need to verify your identity before providing access, and in some limited circumstances permitted by law (for example, where access would pose a serious threat to health or safety, or affect someone else’s privacy), we may need to limit or refuse access. If we refuse a request, we will explain why.

How to make a complaint

If you believe we have breached the Privacy Act or mishandled your personal information, you can make a complaint by contacting our Privacy Officer (details in section 16).

We will acknowledge your complaint within 30 days and aim to resolve it promptly or let you know what further steps are needed.

If you are not satisfied with our response, you can contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner:

Website: www.oaic.gov.au
Phone: 1300 363 992

Since 10 June 2025, individuals may also have a right to bring a claim directly under the statutory tort for serious invasions of privacy, in addition to making a complaint to the OAIC.

Children’s privacy

Some of our services, including JH Kids, involve supporting children and young people. Where we collect personal information about a child, we do so with the consent of a parent or guardian, unless the collection is otherwise permitted or required by law (for example, direct engagement with a young person seeking crisis support).

We take particular care with children’s information and limit its use to providing safe and appropriate support. The Australian Government is introducing a binding Children’s Online Privacy Code, expected by December 2026, which may introduce further obligations for organisations like ours — we will update this Policy as those requirements take effect.

Automated decision-making

If we use a computer program to make, or support, a decision that could reasonably affect your rights or interests (for example, automated eligibility screening), we will describe how that works here, consistent with the disclosure obligations commencing 10 December 2026.

Changes to this Policy

We may update this Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or the law. The current version will always be available on our Site, with the “Last updated” date shown at the top. We encourage you to review this Policy periodically.

Contact us

For any questions about this Policy, or to make an access, correction or complaint request, please contact our Privacy Officer:

Privacy Officer, Jewish House
Phone: (02) 9386 0770
Email: reception@jewishhouse.org.au
Post: 17 Flood Street, Bondi NSW 2026