How we handle information on this site

Who runs this site

Ulster Helps (this website at ulsterhelps.org) is published by the Mental Health Association in Ulster County, Inc.("MHA in Ulster"), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. The directory lists community resources available in and around Ulster County, NY, and is maintained by MHA in Ulster staff and trained community reviewers.

Browsing the directory

You can read the homepage, browse the directory, view category pages, and open individual resource listings without creating an account, providing an email address, or sharing any personal information with us.

We use Vercel Analytics to count anonymous page views so we can understand which resources are most useful to the community. Vercel Analytics does not use cookies and does not collect IP addresses or any data that identifies you personally.

If you suggest a resource

When you submit the form at ulsterhelps.org/suggest, we collect the information you provide:

• The details about the resource (name, phone, address, description, etc.)
• Your name and email address
• The reason you're suggesting the resource

We use this information so that MHA in Ulster staff can review the suggestion, contact you with follow-up questions if needed, and credit you internally if the resource is added to the directory. Your name, email, and reason are never shown publicly on the resource listing.

We log the IP address of submissions for security and abuse prevention. We discard submissions that appear to be automated or abusive without contacting the submitter.

How we use email

We send transactional email only when an action you took requires one — for example, following up on a suggestion you submitted, or confirming a request you initiated. We do not send marketing or fundraising email through this system.

Third-party services we rely on

• Vercel — hosts the website and the database it runs on
• Neon — the Postgres database that stores the directory data and admin accounts
• Resend — delivers the transactional emails listed above
• Upstash — provides the rate-limit storage that protects sign-in and submission endpoints from abuse
• haveibeenpwned.com — when staff set or change their password we send only a partial SHA-1 hash (the first five hex characters) to confirm the password has not been exposed in known data breaches; we never send the actual password

Each of these providers has its own privacy practices. We chose them because their handling of operational data is consistent with the standards a small nonprofit can reasonably maintain.

Cookies

The public pages of this site do not set tracking cookies. We do not use third-party advertising or analytics cookies of any kind.

Data retention

Resource listings are retained indefinitely so the directory has continuity for community members. If you submitted a suggestion and would like the submitter contact information associated with it removed, contact us at the address below.

Your rights

If you would like a copy of any personal information we hold about you, want it corrected, or want us to delete what we can without compromising the audit log, please contact us.

Children

The directory is intended for use by adults, although several listings serve youth and families. We do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 13.

Contact

Questions about this policy, or requests related to your data, should be sent to wellnessinfo@mhainulster.com.

Mental Health Association in Ulster County, Inc. · A 501(c)(3) nonprofit

Changes to this policy

When we make a material change to how we handle information, we update the date at the top of this page and post a notice on the homepage for at least two weeks so regular users have a chance to notice.