RHSH does not photograph the people we serve. Not for social media. Not for grant reports. Not for donor appeals. This is not a logistical limitation — it is a commitment. The people we work with are not projects. Their faces, their stories, and their presence at our events belong to them. We have no right to use their image as proof of our impact, and we don’t.
When funders ask for photos, we explain why we don’t have them. The funders worth working with understand.
RHSH collects minimal participant information. We do not require identification, insurance documentation, or diagnostic history at any point. Where we do collect information — through voluntary participation tracking, peer coaching engagement records, and 90-day check-ins — we collect only what is necessary to provide support and document program outcomes.
All participant data is stored in a password-protected system accessible only to RHSH program staff. We do not sell, share, or disclose participant data to third parties without explicit written consent. Where data is shared with funders, it is anonymized and aggregated. No individual is identifiable in any external report.
Participants may request access to their own records or request deletion at any time by contacting amanda@restoringheartscolorado.org.
Any story shared publicly — in grant applications, on this website, in donor communications — is anonymized. Names are changed. Identifying details are altered or omitted. No story is shared without the participant’s knowledge. When a participant’s story is powerful enough that we want to share it, we tell them so and ask their permission. They say yes or they say no, and we respect both answers equally.
The people whose stories make our work visible are not obligated to serve as our proof of impact. Their willingness to let us share is a gift. We treat it as one.
This website does not use tracking cookies, third-party analytics platforms, or behavioral advertising tools. We do not collect personally identifiable information through this site unless you contact us directly by email.
When you email us, we retain your message and contact information for the purpose of responding and maintaining organizational records. We do not add you to mailing lists without your explicit request.
This site is hosted through Netlify. Their privacy policy governs infrastructure-level data handling and can be found at netlify.com/privacy.
Funders who support RHSH receive aggregate, anonymized program data: event counts, attendance ranges, tier progression summaries, and outcome indicators. They do not receive individual participant records, names, contact information, or any data that could identify a specific person served.
Our organizational documents — Form 990, IRS determination letter, board list, and audited financials — are available on request to any funder or member of the public. We hold a Candid Gold Seal of Transparency.
If you are a funder with a specific question about our data practices, we welcome it. Contact amanda@restoringheartscolorado.org.
RHSH is a non-clinical peer support organization. We do not diagnose, treat, or provide medical care, so we are not a covered entity under HIPAA and we do not operate a federally assisted substance use disorder treatment program under 42 CFR Part 2.
We nonetheless hold our practices to the spirit of those standards. Information a participant shares with a peer coach is treated as confidential. We do not disclose that a specific individual is connected to our program — to family, employers, landlords, law enforcement, or funders — without that person’s express permission. Where we make a warm handoff to a clinical provider, we ask the participant first, and we tell them exactly what will be shared.
There are narrow limits to that confidentiality, and we name them plainly rather than let anyone be surprised by them. Our staff and volunteers will act when someone is at imminent risk of harming themselves or another person, and where Colorado law imposes mandatory reporting obligations regarding abuse or neglect of a child or an at-risk adult. We tell participants this up front. Nothing else leaves the relationship.
Public and settlement-funded grants carry auditing and reporting obligations, and we meet them without exposing the people we serve. Grant reporting is delivered in aggregate: counts of individuals engaged, referrals initiated and completed, retention at ninety days, locations covered, and documented partner relationships. Program funders receive numbers and trends, never names.
We maintain dated field contact logs sufficient to substantiate every figure we report. Those logs are retained for the period required by the terms of each grant — generally no less than three years following the close of the award — and are stored in a password-protected system accessible only to program staff. If an awarding body requires access for audit, we work with them to satisfy that requirement in the least identifying way the audit permits, and we notify participants where we are able to do so.
Records are securely destroyed at the end of the applicable retention period. A participant may request deletion of their own records at any time; where a record is under an active grant retention obligation, we will say so plainly rather than delete something we are required to keep.
Our peer coaches and peer leaders in training came from the population we serve, and their own recovery histories are their own. We do not disclose a staff member’s or volunteer’s recovery history, return to use, or personal circumstances to funders, partners, or the public. Where a peer leader chooses to share their own story publicly, that is their decision and it is revocable.
This policy was last updated August 2026. We will update it as our practices evolve and will note the revision date here. Material changes will be communicated directly to active program participants.
Questions about this policy: amanda@restoringheartscolorado.org
The people we serve are not our proof of impact. They are the point.