Clear boundaries help this space remain safe.

1. Accepting these terms

These Terms & Conditions form an agreement between you and Held With Hope. By accessing or using the website, creating an account, joining the community or submitting content, you agree to these terms and our Privacy Policy. If you do not agree, do not use the Service.

2. Eligibility and accounts

• You must be at least 18 years old to create an account or use the member community.
• You must provide accurate age and location confirmations, while using a made-up member name that does not identify you.
• You are responsible for keeping your password and browser access secure and for activity through your account.
• Do not share an account, impersonate another person, create accounts to evade moderation or use a name that identifies or misleads others.
• Because no account email is collected, forgotten passwords cannot be recovered by email.

3. What Held With Hope provides

The Service provides general educational information, practical directories, self-reflection tools, a moderated peer community, Support Team messaging and a constrained virtual directory guide. Features may change, pause or be withdrawn.

The Service does not establish a doctor–patient, therapist–client, lawyer–client or other professional relationship. It does not diagnose, prescribe, provide emergency monitoring or replace advice from a qualified professional who understands your circumstances.

4. Community standards

You must not use the Service to:

• threaten, harass, shame, intimidate, exploit or discriminate against another person;
• pressure someone toward a pregnancy, parenting, adoption, abortion, religious or medical decision;
• publish real names, contact details, exact locations, clinic details or other identifying information about yourself or another person;
• give medical, legal or counselling instructions while presenting yourself as qualified when you are not;
• promote self-harm, violence, abuse, graphic content, misinformation, unlawful activity, commercial solicitation or spam;
• attempt to contact another member outside the Service, bypass safety controls, scrape content or interfere with the website; or
• upload content you do not have permission to share.

Disagreement may be expressed respectfully. Kindness does not require members to share the same beliefs or emotional response.

5. Your content and moderation

You keep ownership of content you create. You give Held With Hope a limited, worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free licence to host, reproduce, format, moderate and display that content only as needed to operate, protect and improve the Service. This licence ends when the content is deleted, except for reasonable backups, safeguarding records and legal retention.

Content may be automatically checked before publication. We may hold, hide, edit only for privacy or safety, remove or refer content for human review. We may restrict or close accounts where reasonably necessary to enforce these terms or protect people. Automated and human moderation can make mistakes; members can report content or contact the Support Team about a decision.

6. Ella and generated information

Ella is an automated directory guide. Its replies may be incomplete, outdated or incorrect. Do not rely on Ella for a medical, safety, legal or pregnancy decision. Confirm service availability and important information directly with the relevant organisation or a qualified professional. Ella’s stated scope must not be treated as a complete description of all lawful healthcare options.

7. External organisations and links

Links and contact details are provided for convenience and do not guarantee endorsement, eligibility, availability, quality, safety or a particular outcome. External organisations control their own services, content and privacy practices. Confirm current details directly before acting or sharing sensitive information.

8. Availability, intellectual property and acceptable access

We may update, suspend or discontinue parts of the Service and do not promise uninterrupted or error-free access. The Held With Hope name, branding, site design and original site materials are owned by or licensed to us. You may use them for personal, non-commercial purposes only. Do not copy, republish, sell, reverse engineer or exploit the Service except where Australian law permits it.

9. Responsibility and limits

You remain responsible for decisions you make and information you share. To the maximum extent permitted by law, Held With Hope is not responsible for indirect or consequential loss arising from use of, or inability to use, the Service or an external organisation.

Nothing in these terms excludes, restricts or modifies a right, guarantee, remedy or liability that cannot lawfully be excluded, including under the Australian Consumer Law where it applies.

10. Ending access, changes and governing law

You may stop using the Service or delete your account at any time. Provisions that reasonably need to continue—such as intellectual property, moderation records, responsibility and legal limits—survive account closure.

We may update these terms when the Service or legal requirements change. The current version and update date will appear here. Material changes affecting members will be communicated through the Service where reasonably practicable. These terms are governed by the laws of Australia and, where applicable, New South Wales. Courts with jurisdiction under those laws may hear disputes.