Terms of Service

The Park Terms of Service

Effective Date: May 8, 2024

These terms set forth our legal obligations to each other. They apply to your use of our services.

When we say “CCAI,” “we,” “us,” and “our” in these terms, we mean CCAI, The Park, its subsidiaries, and its related programs.

When we say “services” in these terms, we mean CCAI’s services, websites, and other products.

When we say “you” or “your,” we mean you. If you’re accessing our services on behalf of a legal entity (like your employer), you agree that you have the authority to bind that entity to these terms, and “you” and “your” will refer to that entity.

Together with our Privacy Policy, these rules make this connection space possible, and they matter deeply to us. If you believe others aren’t following these policies, please let us know by reporting it to us via email at mail@ccaifamily.org or info@theparkcommunity.org.

Age requirements and responsibility of parents and legal guardians

The Park Adoption Community Center
The Park is a community center that offers a vast variety of in-person and online resources for the adoption community and the community at large. These services are open to all unless otherwise stated. For example, some services we offer are for adoptees only, in which case only adopted individuals are allowed to access the service. Similarly, The Park offers programs that are limited to only adoptive parents or adoption professionals. In addition to these community requirements, certain programs may be age-restrictive. Programs like Beyond Adopteen for adult adoptees ages 21+ or the AdopTween Pen Pal Program that requires pen pals to be at least 7 years old to participate. We take these restrictions seriously and trust that our community members respect and understand these restrictions. 

The Park Online Community Portal
By accessing our services, you confirm that you’re at least 13 years old and meet the minimum age required by the laws in your country. We maintain a list of minimum ages around the world as a resource for you, but we aren’t able to guarantee that it is always accurate. If you are old enough to access our services in your country, but not old enough to have authority to consent to our terms, your parent or legal guardian must agree to our terms on your behalf. Please ask your parent or legal guardian to read these terms with you. If you’re a parent or legal guardian, and you allow your child (who must meet the minimum age for your country) to use the services, then these terms also apply to you and you’re responsible for your child’s activity on the services, including purchases made by them.

What we provide

The Park is committed to providing accessible adoption engagement opportunities and effective support systems for the adoption community. We accomplish this mission through our in-person community programming such as workshops, camps, retreats, classes, and trainings, as well as through our online offerings, including online workshops, trainings, classes, camps, and The Park’s online community portal.

The Park Adoption Community Center

• All The Park Adoption Community Center workshop and class trainers are adoption competent, with comprehensive training in adoption-related topics. Our programming is curated and led by individuals with direct adoption connections and experiences, ensuring that participants receive the most relevant and supportive programming.
• Our Services are intended for individuals of all ages. Minors must be accompanied by a parent or guardian, or have written consent to participate in any of our Services.

The Park Online Community Portal

• The Park’s online community portal is designed to make communication and coordination with The Park staff and the global adoption community network easier, in an adoption-centered social network. To do this, we provide different digital spaces where you can connect with other users and communities: Posts, Messages, Groups, Forums, and Classes.
• The Park’s online community portal services may be personalized to each user based on their activity, so that you can see content and communities that may be of interest to you. 
• We’re actively developing new features and products to improve user experience. As part of these efforts, we may add or remove features, start offering new services, or stop offering some services entirely (or just in some places or for some users) if they no longer make sense from a business perspective or create risk for The Park, our users, or other third parties. While we try to avoid disruptions, we cannot guarantee that there will not be an outage or change to the services, and your content may not be retrievable due to such outages or changes. We are not liable for any such outages or service changes.

Your Participation

The Park Adoption Community Center

To participate in our services, you may be required to register and provide accurate information. You are responsible for ensuring that your information is accurate and up-to-date.

You agree to comply with any rules and regulations related to the specific program or activity in which you are participating.

Certain services may require payment of a fee. All fees are subject to their relevant refund policies unless otherwise stated. Some fees may be a suggested donation and are not required in order to participate in the service. Suggested donations are subject to your own discretion and we appreciate your support. Payment must be made in full prior to participation in any fee-based service, unless otherwise agreed upon. We accept various forms of payment, including check, credit card, Venmo, and ACH. Your payment information is securely processed.

The Park Online Community Portal
To access your The Park online community portal, you will need to create a free account. You will need to provide your full name, a username, a password, and an email address in order to create an account. You’ll also need to provide your birthday. In some cases, you may be required to verify your account or provide additional information. There is no fee associated with the creation of an account.

You are responsible for the security of your account, and you agree to notify us immediately if you believe your account has been compromised. If you use a password, it must be strong, and we highly recommend that you use that password only for your The Park account. 

We may assume that any communications we’ve received from your account or the associated contact information have been made by you, and that any purchases made using your account were made by you. 

If you get locked out of your account, we’ll need to contact you at the email or phone number associated with your account. If your account is compromised or you no longer have access to your email account or phone number, we may not be able to restore your access to your account. 

Conduct

We expect all participants to behave respectfully and courteously. Disruptive, disrespectful, or harmful behavior will not be tolerated. Any form of harassment, discrimination, or violence is strictly prohibited. If you witness or experience any of these behaviors, please report it immediately.

When using our online community portal services, you must comply with these terms and all applicable laws, rules, and regulations, and you must only use the services for authorized and acceptable purposes. You must also adhere to our Community Guidelines, which contain more detailed rules about your content and behavior when using our services and how we enforce them on/at The Park. Fundamentally, do not do, try to do, or encourage or help others to do any of the following:

• Don’t use the services to do harm to yourself or others. Among other things, this includes trying to gain access to another user’s account or any non-public portions of the services, infringing anyone else’s intellectual property rights or any other proprietary rights, exploiting, harassing, bullying, spamming, auto-messaging, or auto-dialing people through our services.
• Don’t use the services to do harm to The Park. Among other things, this includes trying to gain access to or attacking our systems, scraping our services without our written consent, transmitting viruses or other malicious code to our services, abusing or defrauding us or our payment systems, copying our product or using our intellectual property without permission, and misusing our reporting or customer service mechanisms.
• Don’t use the services to do anything else that’s illegal. This includes using the services to plan or commit any crime or do anything else that is illegal.

We encourage you to report content or conduct that you believe violates these restrictions. 

Safety & Liability

Your safety is important to us. Please follow all safety guidelines and instructions provided by our staff or in our Community Guidelines during your participation in any of our Services.

You agree to participate in our services at your own risk. We are not liable for any injuries, damages, or losses that occur during your participation, unless due to our gross negligence or willful misconduct.

Termination

You are free to stop using The Park’s services at any time and for any reason. To terminate this agreement, you may delete your account through the Settings page and discontinue use of the services. Certain provisions of these terms will survive termination as outlined below in the “Survival” section.

We reserve the right to modify or terminate any service at any time without notice. If a service is canceled, you may be entitled to a refund or alternative arrangements, depending on each service’s refund policy.

Subject to applicable law, we reserve the right to suspend or terminate your account and/or your access to some or all of our services with or without notice, at our discretion for any reason, or for the following reasons:

• You breach these Terms of Service, our Community Guidelines, or additional terms and policies that apply to specific programs.
• We’re required to do so to comply with a legal requirement or court order.
• We reasonably believe termination is necessary to prevent harm to you, us, other users, or third parties.
• Your account has been inactive for more than five years.
• Continuing to allow your account to be active, giving you access to some or all services, or hosting your content creates risk for us, other users, or third parties.

However, we will give you advance notice if it is reasonable to do so or required by applicable law.

We also reserve the right to modify these Terms of Service at any time. Changes will be effective upon posting on our website or other means of communication. Continued use of our services after changes are made constitutes acceptance of the new Terms.

Settling Disputes

These Terms shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of Colorado. Any disputes arising out of or relating to these Terms or our Services will be resolved through negotiation and, if necessary, binding arbitration in Colorado.

By agreeing to these Terms, you waive your right to bring a lawsuit in court and your right to a trial by jury.

Additional Information

You have certain rights that, by law, can’t be limited by these terms, and we in no way intend to restrict those rights in these terms.

Entire agreement. These terms cover the entire agreement between you and CCAI for your use of our services.

Additional terms. Where additional terms apply to our products, programs, or services, the additional terms will control with respect to your use of that service to the extent of any conflict with these terms.

Bug reporting. We support the responsible reporting of security vulnerabilities. To report a security issue, please email us.

Waiver, severability, and assignment. If you fail to follow these terms and we don’t immediately act, that doesn’t mean we’re giving up any of our legal rights (such as acting in the future). If any part of these terms ends up being invalid or unenforceable based on a decision by any court or competent authority, the rest of these terms will not be affected. You may not assign these terms to anyone else without our written consent. We may assign our rights to any of our affiliates or subsidiaries, or to any successor in interest of any business associated with our services.

Survival. Any part of these terms that by their nature should survive after termination of these terms will survive. As permitted under applicable law, this includes but may not be limited to the following:

• Our rights to retain and display certain data, including participation numbers in past events or programs in which you may have participated;
• Any amounts owed will remain due;
• Any dispute resolution provisions, including the arbitration agreement, such as those under the “Settling disputes” section.

Updates to these terms. We may decide to update these terms: (1) to reflect changes to our services or our business, (2) for legal or regulatory reasons, (3) to prevent abuse on or of our services, or (4) to better protect or serve users of our services. If these changes materially affect your use or your legal rights, we’ll give you reasonable advance notice (unless the updates are urgent). If you continue to use our services after the changes have taken effect, it means that you agree to the changes. If you don’t agree, you must stop using our services.

Contact

If you have any questions about these terms, you can email mail@ccaifamily.org or info@theparkcommunity.org. We may send you electronic communications related to our services. Where required, we’ll get your consent before sending you direct marketing, and we’ll make it easy for you to opt out.

Privacy Policy

The Park’s Privacy Policy

Effective Date: May 8, 2024

This Privacy Policy explains how our website(s) collect, use, store, protect, and share your personal information. It is important that you read this entire policy, but here is a summary to get you started:

• Privacy is our top priority. We are committed to creating spaces where the adoption community can connect and share online. Respecting user privacy is a key part of this mission.
• We do not and will never sell your personal information to anyone and we do not partner with or have special relationships with any ad server companies.
• We limit what information is required. We require the information that enables us to create your account, provide and maintain our services, meet our commitments to our users, and satisfy our legal requirements. Everything else is optional.
• We care deeply about safety. Our dedicated administrative team works hard to keep this online community safe. We reserve the right at all times to monitor, review, retain, and/or disclose any information as necessary. Any actions in violation of common on-line community conduct, decency and propriety will be regulated and subject to legal process and law enforcement.
• We give you control. You have full control over your privacy on The Park.

Introduction

By using our websites (ccaifamily.org and theparkcommunity.org), you are agreeing to the terms of our Privacy Policy as set out below. We reserve the right to modify this policy as our needs require and will keep this page updated on our site. We are particularly sensitive to privacy issues on the internet and provide this Privacy Policy so you can know about our online information practices and understand how we treat the information we receive about you from the internet.

CCAI is the sole owner of the information collected on this site, and we will not sell, share, or rent personally identifiable information to others in any way. We do not collect any personally identifiable information from you (e.g., name, street address, e-mail address) unless you voluntarily choose to disclose such information. We only ask for the information needed to provide the service you have requested. Presently, such requests include: submitting an application, question, comment, or concern to us; requesting an Adoption Information Packet or Sponsorship Prospectus; making a donation; booking a field trip; registering for a Parenting Training class, a The Park community workshop, in-person class, or on-line class; booking a Heritage Tour, registering for a camp or retreat; signing up for an account with CCAI or The Park; and purchasing an item from the CCAI/The Park online store. Any information collected is used only to process such applications or requests. All users can see, edit, or delete their personal information at any time (except they cannot change their username). Website administrators can also see and edit this information. If you have provided us your personal information and do not wish to receive further information from CCAI, you may send us an e-mail at mail@ccaifamily.org or info@theparkcommunity.org to notify us and we will remove you from all future communications.

From time to time, we may use customer information for new, unanticipated uses not previously disclosed in our privacy policy. If our information practices change at some time in the future, we will contact you before we use your data for these new purposes to notify you of the policy change and to provide you with the ability to opt out of these new uses, and/or we will post the policy changes to our Web site(s) to notify you of these changes and provide you with the ability to opt out of these new uses. If you are concerned about how your information is used, you should check back at our Web site periodically.

Upon request we offer visitors the ability to have inaccuracies corrected in contact information. Customer can have this information corrected by sending us e-mail at the above addresses.

Connect, Build, Flourish

The Park was built to challenge the landscape of post-adoption support; to provide accessible adoption engagement opportunities and effective support systems for the adoption community. The mission is to provide lifelong resources that help empower and nurture adopted individuals and their families to grow and thrive. The Park’s online community portal helps us support this mission.

For each visitor to our site, our web server automatically recognizes only that information which the user provides willingly. CCAI will never require you to provide any verifiable identification information without consent.

As explained in our Terms of Service, we allow users to add content in a number of different ways, including via direct messages and in smaller and larger spaces. If you share content within larger spaces, that content may be accessed by many people, including people you do not know. For example, the Activity Feed is a public feed that can be viewed by all registered users. However, no content within the community portal can be shared outside of The Park’s website.

We will always try to let you know the type privacy a space is set to. You should take all of this into account when you are using our services, and choose the spaces, features, and settings that are most appropriate for your engagement.

Third Party Services

CCAI is very careful about this site’s third-party affiliates and makes sure that no personally identifiable information is shared with them unless the site user affirmatively chooses to submit that information to them. Our third-party affiliations are as follows:

• Authorize.Net
  Authorize.Net is used to process secure online credit card transactions. Personally identifiable information provided to this company while on its servers is NOT bound by this Privacy Policy. Please consult the privacy policies of Authorize.Net (https://www.authorize.net/about-us/dpa.html) to learn more about its practices in handling personally identifiable information.
• Gravitar
  Gravatar is used as a spam detector. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/.

Cookies

We use cookies to record session information, such as events users register for, to record user-specific information on what pages users access or visit, and/or to customize Web page content based on visitors’ browser type or other information that the visitor sends. All cookies are based on voluntary user login.

If a user leaves a comment on our site, they may opt-in to saving their credentials in cookies. These are for convenience, but are optional. These cookies will last for one year.

If a user visits our login page, the sire will set a temporary cookie to determine if their browser accepts cookies. This cookie contains no personal data and is discarded when they close their browser. When the user logs in, the site will set up cookies to save login credentials and screen display choices. Login cookies last for two days, and screen options cookies last for a year.

If the user selects “Remember Me”, their login will persist for two weeks. If the user logs out of their account, the login cookies will be removed.

Users who supply us with their telephone numbers will only receive phone contact from us with information regarding relevant items they have voluntarily connected with or indicated interest in.

Security

We have appropriate security measures in place in our physical facilities and in the cloud to protect against the loss, misuse or alteration of information that we have collected from you at our site(s). For example, we use Transport Layer Security (“TLS”) to encrypt text and images in transit. We also enforce technical and administrative access controls to limit which of our employees and contractors have access to nonpublic personal information.

CCAI has no obligation to monitor the site or the use thereof or to retain the content of any user session. However, CCAI reserves the right at all times to monitor, review, retain, and/or disclose any information as necessary to satisfy any applicable law, regulation, legal process, or governmental request or to cooperate with law enforcement and other authorities in investigating a claim of illegal activity. CCAI may use IP addresses to identify a user when we believe it is necessary to enforce compliance with the terms governing use of our site(s) or to protect our service, site(s), families, users, or others. Any actions in violation of common on-line community conduct, decency and propriety will be regulated and may be subject to legal process and law enforcement.

Spam Detection

Comments – When visitors leave comments on the site, we collect the data shown in the comments form, and also the visitor’s IP address and browser user agent string to help spam detection. An anonymized string created from your email address (also called a hash) may be provided to the Gravatar service to see if you are using it. The Gravatar service privacy policy is available here: https://automattic.com/privacy/. After approval of your comment, your profile picture is visible to the public in the context of your comment.

Media Sharing

If users upload images or videos to the Web site, they should avoid uploading images with embedded location data (EXIF GPS) included. Visitors to the site can download and extract any location data from images on the website if location data is embedded.

Changes to the Policy

We will update this Privacy Policy from time to time. We always indicate the date the last changes were published, and if changes are significant, we’ll provide a more prominent notice as required by law, such as by emailing you or highlighting the changes within the services.

Outside Links

Our site(s) contains links to other websites not operated by CCAI, and we are not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of those sites. If you choose to access any of them, we suggest that you exercise your best judgment when sharing personal information on these Web sites. Unfortunately, no data transmission over the Internet can be guaranteed to be 100% secure. As a result, while we strive to protect your personal information, CCAI cannot ensure or warrant the security of any information you transmit to us or any information provided by our on-line products or services, and you do so at your own risk. CCAI will not be liable for disclosures of your personal information due to errors in transmission or unauthorized acts of third parties. However, once we receive your transmission, we make our best effort to ensure its security on our systems. 

Contact

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, the practices of this site, your dealings with the site, or would like to provide comments or edits on this Privacy Policy, you can send us an e-mail at mail@ccaifamily.org or info@theparkcommunity.org