Last updated: 25 June 2026
This Privacy Policy describes how Waverley Action for Youth Services Inc (ABN 66 420 137 806), trading as WAYS Youth & Family (“WAYS”, “we” or “us”) collects, holds, uses and discloses personal information.
It applies to personal information collected through our website at ways.org.au, the services we deliver, and our fundraising and supporter activities. We are committed to handling your personal information in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs), the Spam Act 2003 (Cth), the Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002 (NSW) where it applies to our Wellness Centre, the Charitable Fundraising Act 1991 (NSW), and Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC) governance standards. Our fundraising practices are aligned with the Fundraising Institute Australia (FIA) Code of Conduct.
WAYS is a registered charity (ACNC since 03 December 2012) and an endorsed Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR since 01 July 2000). We are also an endorsed Public Benevolent Institution. Since 1981 we have supported young people and their families in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs. Our programs include WAYS OOSH (after school care and vacation care), WAYS Secondary (a NESA-accredited independent secondary school for Years 9 to 12), WAYS Wellness Centre (counselling and case management for young people aged 7 to 24), WAYS Training (registered training organisation RTO 90114, delivering CHC30121, CHC42021 and CHC22015), and our Fundraising program.
Our registered office is at 63a Wairoa Avenue, North Bondi NSW 2026. Our training operations are at 422 Oxford Street, Bondi Junction NSW 2022.
The information we collect depends on how you interact with us.
If you donate or support WAYS: your name, contact details, donation history, communication preferences, and payment details (processed by our payment partners; we do not store full card numbers).
If you are a parent, guardian or family member of a child in our OOSH or Secondary School: your contact details, your child’s name, date of birth, school, Customer Reference Number (CRN) for Child Care Subsidy, emergency contacts, family medical and dietary information, court orders affecting custody where relevant, and payment details.
If you are a young person, student or client: name, date of birth, school, education and qualification records, attendance, learning needs, health information necessary to deliver our services, behavioural and progress information, photos and video where you (or your parent or guardian) have consented, and other information necessary for the safe and effective delivery of our services.
If you apply to work or volunteer with us: name, contact details, work history, qualifications, references, Working With Children Check details, police check details, banking and superannuation information (for employees), and other information relevant to your engagement.
If you visit our website: information about your visit, including IP address, browser type, pages viewed, and information collected through cookies and similar technologies.
We collect sensitive information (including health information for our Wellness Centre clients) only where it is reasonably necessary, with your consent, or where required or authorised by law. Sensitive information is held with elevated security and is shared outside the immediate clinical or care team only with your informed consent or where required by law, including mandatory reporting under the Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998 (NSW).
We work with children and young people every day. When we collect personal information about a child we collect it directly from a parent, guardian or authorised carer wherever practical, use it only for the purpose of delivering services to that child and meeting our legal obligations, and hold it with appropriate security and access controls. We do not use children’s information for direct marketing. Where a young person aged under 18 wishes to access our Wellness Centre or our RTO independently of a parent, a qualified clinician or trainer will assess whether the young person has the maturity and understanding to make that decision for themselves.
We collect personal information directly from you wherever practical: when you enrol a child in OOSH or our school, apply for a Wellness Centre or RTO place, donate, set up a peer-to-peer fundraising page, subscribe to our updates, complete a website form, apply for a role with us, or contact us by phone, email or social media. We may also collect information from third parties including referring schools, support agencies, government departments and the platforms we use to deliver services.
We use personal information to deliver our services, process donations and issue tax-deductible receipts as required by the Australian Taxation Office, maintain supporter relationships, communicate with you about our work where you have agreed to receive those communications, administer enrolments and fee collection (including claims under government funding programs such as Child Care Subsidy and Smart and Skilled), recruit and manage staff and volunteers, comply with our legal obligations, manage feedback and complaints, and improve our services.
We may contact you about our services, events, fundraising appeals (including our end-of-financial-year appeal) and other ways to support our work by email, post, SMS or phone where you have given us your consent, or where you are an existing supporter and we reasonably expect that you would want to receive these communications. This is consistent with the Spam Act 2003 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles.
You can opt out of fundraising and marketing communications at any time by clicking the unsubscribe link in any email, replying to an email with “UNSUBSCRIBE”, emailing us at [email protected], or calling (02) 9365 2500. Service-related communications (such as OOSH enrolment confirmations, school notices and Wellness Centre appointment reminders) are not marketing and will continue.
We share personal information with our service providers so that we can run our operations. Currently those service providers include Raisely (donation processing), Grassrootz (peer-to-peer fundraising), Stripe and PayPal (payment processing), GoHighLevel (customer relationship management), OWNA (OOSH bookings and admin), Wisenet (RTO student records), Halaxy (Wellness Centre clinical records), Google Workspace, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager and Google Ads (productivity, website analytics and advertising), Microsoft 365 (productivity), Apple Apps Script (workflow automation), Meta Platforms (Facebook, Instagram and the Meta Pixel for advertising and conversion measurement), and Cloudflare (website infrastructure).
We may also share personal information with government departments and regulators where required (including Services Australia, the Department of Education, NSW Department of Communities and Justice, NSW Health, the ACNC, the ATO and ASQA), with partner schools and referring agencies where you have consented, with our auditors, lawyers and insurers, and with law enforcement, emergency services or child protection authorities where required or authorised by law.
We require our service providers to handle personal information consistently with this Privacy Policy and the Australian Privacy Principles. We do not sell personal information.
Some of our service providers store and process personal information overseas, including in the United States and the European Union. Where personal information is disclosed overseas we take reasonable steps to ensure the overseas recipient handles it consistently with the Australian Privacy Principles.
We store personal information in electronic and physical form. We take reasonable steps to protect it from misuse, interference, loss, unauthorised access, modification and disclosure, including through access controls, multi-factor authentication, network and endpoint security, secure facilities, staff training, and contracts with our service providers.
WAYS holds public and products liability and professional indemnity insurance appropriate to the services we deliver.
We keep personal information only for as long as we need it to deliver our services, meet our legal and regulatory obligations, and respond to disputes or complaints. Specific retention periods apply to donor and tax records (a minimum of 7 years under tax law), OOSH records (in line with Education and Care Services National Regulations), Secondary School records (in line with NSW Education Standards Authority requirements), RTO records (30 years for nationally recognised qualifications, under the Standards for RTOs), Wellness Centre clinical records (7 years after last contact for adults; until age 25 for clients under 18, under the NSW Health Records and Information Privacy Act 2002), and employment records (7 years after employment ends).
WAYS does not currently use automated decision-making (including artificial intelligence) to make decisions that significantly affect individuals.
Our website uses cookies and similar technologies (including Google Analytics 4, Google Tag Manager and the Meta Pixel) to understand how visitors use the site, improve your experience, and support our fundraising and marketing activities. You can control or block cookies through your browser settings. Some site features may not work properly if cookies are disabled.
You have the right to ask what personal information we hold about you, request access to it, ask us to correct it if it is inaccurate, out of date, incomplete or misleading, opt out of marketing communications, and make a complaint. To exercise any of these rights, email [email protected] or call (02) 9365 2500. We may need to confirm your identity before providing access. We respond to most requests within 30 days.
If a data breach involving your personal information is likely to result in serious harm we will notify you and the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner in accordance with the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme under Part IIIC of the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth).
If you have a privacy complaint, please contact us first at [email protected] or (02) 9365 2500. We will acknowledge your complaint within 5 working days and respond substantively within 30 days. If you are not satisfied with our response you may contact the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner at oaic.gov.au or on 1300 363 992.
We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time. Updated versions will be published on this page with the “Last updated” date amended.
WAYS Youth & Family
Email: [email protected]
Phone: (02) 9365 2500
Post: 63a Wairoa Avenue, North Bondi NSW 2026
ABN: 66 420 137 806
