Private Mentorship
Everything that governs how we work together. If anything here is unclear, email hello@privatementorship.ca.
Section 1
The agreement between your family and Private Mentorship.
By creating an account, purchasing a plan, or using privatementorship.ca (the "Site") or any Private Mentorship service (the "Service"), you agree to these Terms. "We," "us," and "our" mean Private Mentorship, a private family-assistant service based in Greater Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada ("Private Mentorship"). "You" means the account holder and their family. This page is a plain-English guide; the full contract your family signs is the Client Engagement Agreement, which controls if anything here and that signed agreement ever differ.
Private Mentorship is a Greater Vancouver, BC–based private family-assistant service. Contact: hello@privatementorship.ca · +1 604-369-8295. For emergencies, call 911 first, then let us know.
A dedicated assistant supports your family across four connected areas, in person or online:
Education and Life Skills are the bulk of the work. Personal Support runs alongside them, and childcare is part of the day rather than the reason for it.
What an assistant is not. An assistant is not a cook, a cleaner, a housekeeper, a driver, or a nanny, and none of those can be booked on their own. Practical help of that kind does happen inside an engagement — a meal for a child in their care, washing up afterwards, a hand with an errand, a lift when it makes sense, a tidy-up at the end of a session, keeping an eye on the kids for a stretch, or personal-care assistance for an adult client. It is always incidental to the three areas above: the smaller part of a session, never its purpose, and an assistant may decline any of it.
We also offer negotiated Custom Plans (Childcare, Disability, General, Seniors) and Assistant for Business engagements, priced per family or per engagement in a written arrangement that governs that specific relationship.
Private Mentorship is a platform that introduces families to self-employed, independent assistants. Assistants are independent contractors — not our employees or agents — and while assistants do provide one-on-one childcare and support for your family, Private Mentorship itself is not a staffing agency, home-care agency, or licensed group child-care facility, school, or clinic. Assistants bring their own skills, training, and experience, and agree on session days, times, and durations with your family directly.
The person who creates the account and signs the contract must be 18 or older and is responsible for the account and for any children they add. A family may include up to five members, in tiers: Child (under 13), Teen (13–17), and Adult (18+). The Family Leader controls the account, grants permissions, and is always able to see their children's messages.
Assistants vary in their skills, education, certifications, and credentials, and different families need different things across education, life skills, childcare, and personal support — not every assistant holds formal certification in every area. Before committing to an assistant, it is your responsibility to review that assistant's profile and background, to request any credentials, certifications, or documents that matter to you, and to write down and ask any questions you care about that we may not have covered. Choosing an assistant is your decision.
A plan reserves a set number of hours per cycle in fixed weekly time slots with the same assistant, who holds that time for your family and does not offer it to others. That time is set aside just for your family, so it stays yours whether or not you use every hour — and any hours you don't use aren't lost; they become bank hours you can use later (see §4.5). Sessions have a two-hour minimum. Each contract centres on one primary person — the child, teen, or adult being supported — though a parent can also use the time for the things they need help with. Your reserved hours belong to your household and can't be shared with another family (for example, a friend's family or a cousin's household). For a genuine sibling, we will ask your assistant to include them at no charge; if that isn't possible, a sibling may be added at $30/hour (two-hour minimum), at the assistant's discretion, and we may ask for ID to confirm a shared last name. Homework corrections are free.
Standard plans (the price shown on the website at checkout is authoritative):
What the plans mean. A 1-month plan is the more frequent option — typically around three sessions a week, two hours each (a 1-month, 24-hour plan works out to three 2-hour sessions a week across four weeks). A 2-month plan spreads similar hours over more weeks, so it suits families who want fewer than three sessions a week — a 2-month, 24-hour plan is usually about two sessions a week. You and your assistant set your own weekly days and times, and you can customize the rhythm to fit your family.
Use your hours within your plan. Your hours are meant to be used during your 1-month or 2-month plan. If you reach the end of a plan with hours left over, you don't lose them outright — they roll into your bank hours (see §4.5) — but bank hours are used at your assistant's discretion and only when they can be fit in, so the plan works best when you use your hours as you go. Bank hours are typically saved for a longer session or an extra appointment later on.
Plan your week first. Before you start, it helps to sit down and think it through: who in your family needs support, what your daily routine looks like, and whether your schedule has room for it. And don't worry about getting it perfect — you and your assistant can always reschedule, find another time, or extend a session, so fitting the hours in is rarely a problem.
Yearly billing receives a 20% discount. There is currently no registration fee. Private Mentorship reserves the right to introduce a one-time registration fee for new clients as it grows; existing and launch clients are grandfathered and will never be asked to pay it. Outing and activity admission costs are paid by the family, with a parent's sign-off for any spending on behalf of a child.
Payment is made through the platform (handled by a third-party payment provider; Private Mentorship never sees or stores your full card number). When you pay, Private Mentorship's 30% platform fee — for the introduction, matching, and running the platform — is collected at that time, and that is the only amount Private Mentorship keeps. The other 70% is your assistant's fee, and Private Mentorship never holds it. Normally your payment is split the moment you make it — 30% to Private Mentorship, 70% straight into your assistant's own account. Where Private Mentorship has agreed you may pay another way, you pay your assistant their 70% directly and pay Private Mentorship its 30% separately. Either way you owe your assistant nothing further once the engagement fee is paid. Private Mentorship's 30% applies to every contract and every renewal, and is never refunded (see §4.4).
You and your family may upload photos, documents, contacts, whiteboards, and worksheets. You keep ownership of your content and grant Private Mentorship a limited licence to host and use it solely to deliver the Service. You agree not to share account logins, not to misuse the video room, and to use the Service lawfully and respectfully.
Lessons, worksheets, and other materials created by Private Mentorship or its assistants remain our intellectual property and are for your family's personal use only. They may not be copied, resold, or distributed.
Our assistants draw on their own education, training, and lived experience to support your family. When an assistant is referred to as a "teacher," it is in the tutoring and mentoring sense. Some assistants hold professional teaching, care, or other credentials and some do not — each assistant's background and any credentials are shown on their profile. Private Mentorship does not require every assistant to hold formal credentials, because families' needs vary widely (see §1.5).
We hold your weekly time with the same assistant for the life of your contract. If your assistant is occasionally unavailable — for example, illness or a personal day — that session simply isn't held that day; we do not send a substitute into your home, and the reserved hour carries over as a bank hour or is rescheduled with your assistant. If an assistant leaves Private Mentorship entirely, we will help your family find a new match — but Private Mentorship is not responsible for any payment arrangement you made with a departed assistant, or for work already paid for; that arrangement is between your family and that assistant. A departed assistant remains bound by their agreement to refund you directly for any hours you paid for but did not receive.
Assistants are not licensed legal, medical, or financial advisors, and nothing in the Service is professional advice of that kind. Where an assistant attends a meeting or appointment on your family's behalf, they act only within the scope you authorize. We do not guarantee specific academic or personal outcomes.
Private Mentorship provides the platform and the introduction. Assistants are independent contractors — not agents or employees of Private Mentorship. To the fullest extent permitted by law, Private Mentorship is not responsible or liable for the acts, omissions, or negligence of an assistant, or for any accident, injury, or loss that occurs during a session, an outing, or transport. Any claim relating to an assistant's own conduct or services is between your family and that independent assistant. Private Mentorship's total liability for any claim is limited to the fees you paid for the service in question. Both signed agreements — the family's and the assistant's — also contain an indemnity in Private Mentorship's favour, meaning you may be asked to cover costs arising from your own breach of them. Read section 12 of your agreement before you sign.
Private Mentorship operates from British Columbia, Canada, and these Terms are governed by the laws of British Columbia and the federal laws of Canada that apply there. Some families take part online from other provinces or countries; by using the Service, they agree that British Columbia law governs and that disputes are handled in the courts of British Columbia or, where applicable, the Civil Resolution Tribunal.
We may update these Terms; material changes take effect when posted, and continued use means acceptance. Either party may end a contract per the Cancellation section. Access to your family workspace generally ends about 30 days after your last active contract.
Your plan reserves recurring weekly time slots that you choose — for example:
You and your assistant set these together at your first meeting, and they repeat at the same times every week for the life of your contract. Those slots are the time you've purchased, so your assistant prepares for and shows up to each one without needing a reminder that day — you can count on them being there for your regular session, and it should never come as a surprise. If a family stops showing up, goes without contact for a long stretch, or isn't communicating, they risk losing their reserved slot to another family in the future.
Life changes, and you can change your time slots — one day, a few, or all of them. To do that, raise it with your assistant through the negotiation tool in your Private Mentorship account, since their schedule has to line up with your request. If one time doesn't work, you're welcome to propose another. If you and your assistant simply can't find a new arrangement that works for you both, you'll continue on your original schedule and finish out the contract. Any hours you don't end up using are not refundable — they become bank hours (see §4.5).
Your homebase is the place you and your assistant choose at your first meeting where your in-person sessions regularly begin. It exists because not every session can happen out in the community — weather, a change of plans, or a day when you or your assistant isn't feeling their best but the session can still go ahead. Because you both know exactly where and when to meet each week, sessions don't have to be renegotiated every time; from your homebase you might head out into the community or on to another location as the session calls for it. Meeting somewhere different for a particular session is entirely up to you and your assistant. Your homebase can change by mutual agreement — for example, starting at your home and later moving to your assistant's home.
Section 2
How we collect, use, protect, and share your information — including your children's.
This policy follows British Columbia's Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA) and Canada's PIPEDA. To make a privacy request, contact hello@privatementorship.ca.
With the parent or guardian's consent, we collect a child's name, date of birth, gender, and (if given) email/phone, plus the schoolwork, progress, and content they create. Children may hold their own supervised logins. A parent controls this data and can exercise all privacy rights on the child's behalf.
Waitlist and intake information you provide; for assistant applicants, identity and background documents used for verification and stored privately.
Messages and attachments, session and lesson logs, grades, scheduling, and — during monitored study or homework — academic-integrity signals (for example, switching tabs or copy/paste) shown in an activity log a parent can review. See Recordings & Media for all recording types.
Our public website uses first-party session-replay analytics that record on-page activity (a replay of the page, clicks, and scrolling) along with device/browser type and an approximate city-level location derived from your internet address. Typed inputs are hidden (masked) — with the single exception of the email you enter to join the waiting list, so we can follow up. This data is viewable only by Private Mentorship and is used solely to understand and improve the site. A notice appears when you arrive: if you decline, we stop recording your visit right away and send nothing — so choosing decline means we don't record you.
We do not use cookies for analytics — this information is kept in your browser's own local storage and is cleared if you decline. To work out an approximate city, your internet address is sent once per visit to ipapi.co, an external lookup service, which returns your city, region, country and internet provider. This happens only after you accept; if you decline, or simply don't answer the notice, nothing is sent.
To deliver and schedule the service, process billing, keep families and children safe, give parents oversight of their children's activity, meet legal obligations, and improve our product. We do not sell, rent, or trade personal information, and we do not use it for third-party advertising.
Access is strictly role-scoped: administrators for operations; an assistant can see only the families they are actively contracted with; a parent sees their own family; a child sees their own data. There are no private assistant-to-child messages — a parent is always able to see their child's conversations.
We use a small number of trusted third-party providers to run the service — for example, for secure hosting, payment processing, messaging, email, analytics, and approximate location lookup from an internet address (ipapi.co). We share only what each provider needs to do its job, and we never sell your data. Some providers operate outside Canada, which means some information may be processed or stored in other countries, as permitted by PIPA and PIPEDA and with appropriate safeguards.
Account and service records are kept for the life of your relationship with us and as required by law. Recording retention is listed in Recordings & Media. Messages are kept for the life of the account. Website analytics recordings are automatically deleted after a set period.
We use industry-standard measures to protect your information, including restricted access and encryption where appropriate. No online system is perfectly secure, so please keep your password private and don't share your login.
You may ask to access, correct, or delete your personal information (and your child's), and opt out of non-essential emails, by contacting hello@privatementorship.ca. Members can also request permanent deletion of their account and data.
Section 3
What gets recorded, who can see it, and how long we keep it.
A child’s session is never recorded — by anyone.
What can still be recorded is introduction and onboarding calls with new families, and interviews with prospective assistants — adults, not children — for hiring and quality purposes. Those recordings are viewable only by Private Mentorship. Assistants cannot record anything, in any part of the platform.
Separately, the at-home Homework Recorder described in 3.2 records a child’s screen while they complete assigned homework. Because it captures the screen, anything the child has open on that screen at the time — including a camera window they opened themselves — will appear in that recording. That is a different tool from session recording, and a parent turns it on. Unsaved recordings are automatically deleted within hours; a saved recording is kept only as long as needed and then removed unless explicitly kept.
When a child completes assigned homework on their own device, the Homework Recorder records the child's screen — it never switches on the camera or the microphone. But because it records the screen, anything the child has open on that screen is recorded too, including a video call the child opened themselves. If your child uses a camera app while the recorder is running, that camera window will appear in the recording — please talk this through with them before they use it. The recorder also captures activity signals (typing, paste, and idle time) shown as an "activity timeline," so the work can be reviewed. Recording is started with the browser's own screen-share prompt and a clear notice. Unsaved recordings auto-delete after 5 days; saved recordings are kept up to 14 days. Note: when a recording is saved, a copy is also downloaded to the reviewer's device — that copy is outside Private Mentorship's control.
Whiteboards and uploaded photos of a child's work are kept while relevant; deleted items sit in a trash for 30 days and are then permanently removed.
Separately from your sessions, our public website records visitor activity for analytics — see the Privacy Policy §2.5 for exactly what this captures and how it's masked.
Consent for onboarding recordings is captured at the start of the call; consent for the Homework Recorder is captured at the moment of recording. You may ask questions or request deletion of a specific recording (subject to the retention windows above) at hello@privatementorship.ca.
Section 4
Flexibility that protects both your family and your assistant's reserved time.
Each contract includes three flex tokens in total — three for the whole contract, shared across both cancellations and reschedules (not three of each). Each family-initiated cancellation or reschedule uses one token and preserves the hour. Tokens don't refill mid-contract and don't roll over to a new contract. The confirmation screen always shows how many tokens remain and exactly what a change will cost, so you never lose hours by accident.
Once all three tokens are used, any further cancellation or reschedule still goes through — but the reserved hours for that session are deducted from your contract balance. This is deliberate: it keeps reserved time meaningful and prevents contracts from being stretched out indefinitely.
Your assistant may cancel or move a session at their own discretion at any time, and it costs you nothing — no token and no hours. The same is true if Private Mentorship cancels, if a session is complimentary, during an approved freeze, or for holiday auto-cancellations.
There are two different situations here, and they work differently. First, Private Mentorship's 30% platform fee is never refunded — not in any circumstance, and not for any reason. Once the engagement fee is paid, you and your assistant complete the hours. Second, hours you simply didn't use (you skipped sessions, or your contract ends with time left over) aren't refunded for cash either — instead they become bank hours you keep as saved time (see §4.5). Third — and this is the important one — hours your assistant was paid for but couldn't deliver, you never lose. Your assistant is committed to delivering every hour you paid for. If they need a break (illness, or life gets busy), they don't disappear: they tell you and arrange to come back and finish the hours. Only if they genuinely cannot continue, they return your unfinished hours to you directly — the portion you paid for hours they won't deliver — within 14 days of the engagement ending, or another timeline you and your assistant agree on. Private Mentorship does not hold, guarantee, or process that money; the assistant owes it straight to you, and an assistant who won't deliver or won't return unfinished hours can lose their access to the platform. Except where a refund is required by law, no other amounts are refundable.
Life happens — vacations, illness, or a missed week — so contracts often end with a few unused hours. Rather than erase them, those hours roll into your family's bank hours: saved hours you can use later for extra support — a longer session (for example, a reserved 2-hour visit that becomes 3–6 hours), an extra session, or an outing — whenever your family needs it. Using bank hours is at your assistant's discretion. Penalties never touch your bank hours. Bank hours are not money: they are never refundable, never transferable, and can never be exchanged for cash — they exist only so unused time isn't wasted, and so accumulated hours never put an assistant or Private Mentorship into debt.
You can freeze a contract for a medical situation, a vacation, a move, or any real need for a break, by giving your assistant advance notice of when you're stepping away and when you plan to return. Frozen hours are held safely and are never lost. A freeze is our final safeguard: flex tokens and your assistant's discretion cover normal life, and a freeze is for a genuine, time-bound break. It is not a way to postpone a contract indefinitely. If a family repeatedly freezes without truly returning, or the return date they gave passes without them coming back, the assistant is not obligated to continue with the family, and that weekly time slot becomes available to other families. If a family disappears without contact, or keeps delaying their return, the remaining hours are considered forfeited. Should you want to come back later, whether your former assistant can fit you into their schedule — when they have more availability — is entirely at their discretion.
Cancellations and changes are made by the account holder or a permitted family member (a Child-tier member cannot). To request extra sessions in a busy week, contact your assistant or Private Mentorship.
Just as your assistant commits to serving your family to the best of their ability, we ask for that same good faith from you. Use your hours the way your plan intends, and when life gets in the way, work with your assistant to reschedule, extend a session, or find another time rather than letting hours go to waste. A contract isn't meant to be stretched out indefinitely — repeatedly delaying or prolonging it, or using the flexibility we offer in bad faith, isn't the spirit Private Mentorship is built on. When both sides plan ahead and act honestly, everything works smoothly, and that mutual respect is what upholds our values.
Section 5
Our safety commitments, and what we expect from everyone.
Our standard onboarding includes an in-person interview, reference checks, and a criminal record check (vulnerable sector). For any assistant who will drive your family, we also check their driver's licence and ICBC driving abstract. Beyond that, assistants' certifications, education, and credentials vary and are shown on each profile — Private Mentorship does not require every assistant to hold a specific certification, so it is the family's responsibility to review a profile and request anything important before committing (see §1.5). Video sessions use a two-stage admit lobby, and there are no private one-to-one assistant-child messages — a parent is always included.
Study and homework may be monitored for academic integrity, with the signals described in Recordings & Media. Parents can review the activity log. Children are gently reminded when they drift off-task, up to and including a note to their parents.
Outing admission is paid by the family; an assistant never spends a child's or family's money without a parent's sign-off, and never asks for personal spending.
Sometimes, with your family's agreement, an assistant pays for something out of their own pocket so they can support your child — for example, covering a monthly gym or activity membership so they can attend alongside them. In that case, your family reimburses the assistant for what they paid. Agree on any such arrangement — what it covers and how it will be paid back — before the assistant spends their own money.
Assistants are introduced to your family through Private Mentorship. During your engagement and for twelve (12) months after your last engagement, you agree not to hire, pay, or arrange services with a Private Mentorship assistant outside of the platform, directly or indirectly. Going around the platform is grounds for removal and may breach your agreement. It also means losing access to the rest of Private Mentorship's family assistants — so if you and your assistant ever stop working together and you need someone new down the road, you'll no longer be able to find a match through us. The signed Client Engagement Agreement also lets Private Mentorship recover the losses it can actually prove from a breach. In most cases the consequence is simply that your platform access ends.
Assistants entering a home or driving a client, and everyone in the video room, are expected to act professionally, safely, and respectfully at all times.
Private Mentorship welcomes families and individuals of every background, ability, gender identity, and orientation. Discrimination, harassment, impersonation of Private Mentorship or its people, and account sharing are prohibited. This is a professional education and support service, not a social or political platform.
Everyone must comply with BC's PIPA, Canada's PIPEDA, and applicable laws. We will report harassment, stalking, abuse of our contact information, or any threat to a child to law enforcement as the law requires.
Violations may lead to a warning, suspension, or permanent removal from the platform, and legal action where warranted. To report a concern, email hello@privatementorship.ca. In an emergency, call 911 first.
Private Mentorship is a professional family-care platform, not a dating service. If a parent and an assistant form a romantic relationship of any kind, it creates a conflict of interest, and the engagement ends immediately for both of them. Assistants hold a position of trust — and often of authority — with children, and in some cases with parents too, and the complications that can arise from a romantic relationship are beyond Private Mentorship's control. We do not support romantic dynamics between families and assistants.
Section 6
The terms you agree to when you join Private Mentorship as an independent assistant.
Assistants are self-employed independent contractors — not employees or agents of Private Mentorship. You are not entitled to wages, salary, overtime, vacation or sick pay, severance, benefits, or EI, CPP, or WorkSafeBC contributions from Private Mentorship, and you are responsible for your own taxes, tools, and business costs. The family pays one engagement fee. Your 70% never passes through Private Mentorship. The family pays for the contract up front and the payment splits as they make it — 30% to Private Mentorship, 70% released into your own account before your first session. It is your money from the moment the family pays it, never Private Mentorship's revenue. Because Private Mentorship never receives and never pays your share, there is no payment from us to you to report and it issues you no T4 and no T4A — you report your own income on a T2125, and you can download an earnings summary of your platform engagements for your records. Your profile is your own promotional listing, and you present yourself to families as an independent contractor engaged through the platform. Your signed agreement also contains an indemnity in Private Mentorship's favour, meaning you may be asked to cover costs arising from your own breach of it. Read it before you sign.
The 30% applies to the engagement fee and to nothing else. Three kinds of money are yours in full, and Private Mentorship takes no share of any of them:
More hours means more for both of us. Where a family needs more than the standard 24 or 40 hours, that is a Custom Plan — quoted per family, at the same hourly rates. The 70/30 split is unchanged: a bigger plan earns more for you and more for Private Mentorship, in the same proportion.
For each engagement, the family pays an engagement fee. You keep 70% of that fee for the services you deliver; Private Mentorship retains a 30% platform fee for the introduction, the matching, and use of the platform. The 30% platform fee is never refunded. Your 70% reaches you without ever passing through Private Mentorship. Normally the family's payment is split at the moment they make it — 30% to Private Mentorship, 70% straight into your own connected account. Where Private Mentorship has agreed a family may pay another way, the family pays you your 70% directly and pays Private Mentorship its 30% separately. It is your money from the moment the family pays it, and Private Mentorship never treats it as its own.
Here's what you take home per contract — your 70%, after Private Mentorship's 30% platform fee. This is paid to you directly by the family, not by Private Mentorship (and it's before your own taxes and costs):
When you accept an engagement, you're committed to delivering every hour the family paid for — and to finishing your current contract before you step away from the platform. Ordinary rescheduling with the family is fine. If life gets in the way — you're unwell, or too busy for a while — don't disappear: tell the family, agree on when you'll return, and come back to finish the remaining hours; their paid hours are held for you to complete. Only if you genuinely cannot continue, you must return the family's unfinished hours to them directly — the portion they paid you for hours you won't deliver — within 14 days of the engagement ending, or another timeline you and the family agree on. This obligation is yours: it runs between you and the family, and Private Mentorship is not a party to it (though an assistant who won't deliver or return unfinished hours can lose their platform access).
If you stop delivering an active engagement for more than fourteen (14) consecutive days without notice to the family or Private Mentorship, the engagement is treated as abandoned: you refund all unearned fees and may owe an abandonment fee set out in your Independent Contractor Agreement. These obligations are enforceable through the BC Civil Resolution Tribunal, BC Small Claims Court, or the courts.
During your engagements and for twelve (12) months after your last engagement with a family, you will not accept off-platform work from — or arrange services outside Private Mentorship with — a family introduced through the platform, even if the family initiates it, without first offering the engagement to Private Mentorship. This applies only to families we introduced you to — building your own separate work off the platform is a different thing entirely, and we actively encourage it (see §6.9). Going around the platform is grounds for the end of your platform access and may breach your agreement. The signed Independent Contractor Agreement also lets Private Mentorship recover the losses it can actually prove from a breach — once per off-platform arrangement, with any Abandonment Fee already paid credited against it. In most cases the consequence is simpler: your profile comes down and your platform access ends.
You will conduct yourself professionally and respectfully toward families and any third parties, comply with all applicable laws (including health and safety), and protect the confidentiality of every family you serve. You never spend a child's or family's money without a parent's sign-off. Serious conduct issues can end your access to the platform.
Your access to Private Mentorship is a revocable licence. Private Mentorship may restrict or end your platform access at its discretion — for example, for non-delivery, mishandling a family's money, off-platform solicitation, or unprofessional conduct. Because you are a contractor and not an employee, this is the end of your platform access — not a "termination," "firing," or "discipline." And taking a family we introduced you to off the platform closes the door for good: you will no longer be listed on Private Mentorship, and you will never again receive a family referral from us.
This section is a plain-English summary for transparency. The binding terms are set out in the Independent Contractor Agreement you review and sign when you apply to Private Mentorship, which governs your relationship with the platform. If anything here and that signed agreement ever differ, the signed agreement controls.
Private Mentorship encourages and supports you to build your own independent work. You're welcome to take on families you find yourself, keep growing your experience and your résumé, and use everything you gain here to work with other families off the platform. Your career is your own, and we want it to keep expanding. The one boundary is simple: the families we personally introduce you to stay on the platform (see §6.5) — everything you build on your own is yours to keep.
Beyond the families you bring in yourself, Private Mentorship helps you meet new ones — as your reputation grows, you may receive introductions and referrals from us. Most of our assistants work with one to four families at a time; if you'd like to take on more and your schedule allows, that's completely fine. We want your work here to grow right alongside you.
Your profile is how families discover you and decide you're the right fit, so keeping it strong is your responsibility. Keep your details current, add your certificates and credentials as you earn them, and upload clear photos and short videos so families can get a genuine sense of who you are before they commit. Families choose the assistant who feels right for them — so if interest is slow, it's often a sign there's more you can add or refresh. And keep growing: new training, more experience, a driver's licence, further education, personal development — bring all of it to your profile, so everything you build is exactly what families see.
Families book in 1-month or 2-month plans of 24 or 40 hours. A 1-month plan is more frequent — often about three 2-hour sessions a week; a 2-month plan spreads similar hours over more weeks for families who want fewer sessions a week (a 2-month, 24-hour plan is usually about two a week). You and the family set your own weekly days and times. Help families use their hours within the plan period — that's what the plan is for. Any hours left unused at the end roll into the family's bank hours, which are used at your discretion and only when they can be fit in — usually for a longer session or an extra appointment later on. A little planning up front, plus flexible rescheduling and the occasional extended session, keeps everyone's hours on track.
Serve every family to the best of your ability, and accommodate them when it's needed. When something has to change, your first move should be to reschedule, extend a session, or add one later — not to simply burn or deduct hours because a rule allows it. Deducting a family's hours just because you can isn't the standard we hold. At the same time, keep a healthy balance: a contract's hours aren't meant to be stretched out indefinitely. Think long-term, act responsibly, and treat each family the way you'd want your own to be treated — that thoughtful, good-faith approach is Private Mentorship's way of working, and it's what upholds our values.
You and each family agree on recurring weekly time slots at your first meeting — for example:
You hold those times for them every week. Show up prepared for each regular slot without waiting for a same-day reminder; the family is counting on you to be there. If a family wants to change their slots — a day or all of them — they'll raise it with you through the negotiation tool, and it's fine to adjust when your schedule allows; if you genuinely can't make a new arrangement work, both of you continue on the original schedule and finish the contract. You are never required to refund a family for hours they didn't use because of a change on their end. If you are the one who can't continue, though — you need to change the schedule and can't make the hours work — and the family has pre-paid, you return the remaining unused hours to them (see §6.3). The easiest path is almost always to simply finish your contracted hours, which never calls for a refund.
Your homebase is the spot you and the family agree on at your first meeting where in-person sessions regularly begin. It gives everyone structure — you both know exactly where and when to meet each week, so the time and place don't have to be renegotiated. From there you might head into the community or elsewhere as the session calls for it, and meeting somewhere different for a given session is up to you and the family. A homebase can change by mutual agreement — for example, moving from the family's home to your own.
You must not enter a romantic relationship with a family or parent you work with. Private Mentorship is a professional family-care platform, not a dating service, and you're in a position of trust — and often authority — with children and their families. If a romantic relationship forms, it is a conflict of interest and the engagement ends immediately for both sides. The complications that can follow are beyond anyone's control, which is why we do not support these dynamics.