About Us
YouHearYou is a small LLC organization built on the idea that everyone deserves to hear and feel heard while being supported no matter what they are going through. Josie, a 17-year-old highschool senior created YouHearYou in a senior class, hoping to make a change in the world. This course allowed Josie to make the class her own; she could choose a topic and research about it and then do something with that. Josie decided to create an organization and learn all the steps of running a non-profit.
Josie's dreams are to own a business while helping and supporting others with her personal experiences. The founder, Josie Switzer, was born in a small town in New Hampshire. She was diagnosed with hearing loss at the age of 14; this late diagnosis caused her to develop mental health issues. Josie struggles with anxiety and depression. She was a teen dealing with mental health struggles and noticed how many of her peers and other teens dealt with mental health as well. She decided to expand to include not only kids but, she wanted to help prevent mental health issues by giving them access to hearing devices but to all kids who struggle with mental health issues.
Josie has big dreams of spreading a message that brings awareness around something she has experienced. Josie wanted to connect and relate to the people she was raising money for and supporting. Josie also wanted a business that could grow and expand into something bigger and more inclusive as the organization grows. With Josie having experienced hearing loss and mental health, she decided YouHearYou was the right path for her organization. Josie wants to use her experiences to help others feel heard and understood while supporting them. Preventing mental health problems created by hearing loss and generally preventing and supporting everyone dealing with mental health is a long-term goal of YouHearYou. Those ideas and plans helped Josie develop YouHearYou.
YouHearYou helps support, aid, and bring awareness around hearing loss and mental health. YouHearYou, as an organization and a community, works to help prevent mental health and give those who don't have access to the needed hearing devices. YouHearYou spreads our message by selling merchandise, collecting donations, and welcoming other contributions. Thank you for supporting us in whatever way you can!
To Find out more about our mission and vision, read below.
Our Mission
Our Vision
YouHearYou is a LLC that works towards supporting and raising awareness for kids who don't have access to hearing devices to prevent the development of mental health issues. We work towards these goals as an organization and a community to allow people to be heard. With the profits, donations, and other contributions YouHearYou raises, support and aid will go to kids or organizations that correlate with our goals. With the merchandise we sell, YouHearYou wants to spread a message that everyone should hear and should be heard while feeling supported. Our organization strives for the community, inclusion, and the feeling of support. YouHearYou wants to help those who may need aid to hear, but also those who do not feel heard.
YouHearYou, as a company, wants to draw connections not only to mental health issues correlating with hearing loss but to specific mental health issues in our future. Our goal is to continue expanding to try and include everyone who struggles with mental health. We aspire to have a community of inclusion, respect, and support. We hear and bring awarness on mental health and hearing loss: so you can be heard.
YouHear means ...
HearYou means...
The Meaning Behind The Name
The meaning behind the name comes in two parts. The first part is "You Hear," which implies the support and aid to those who may not have access to hearing aids or other hearing devices. The second part, "Hear You," means that YouHearYou as a company will hear everyone's voices. Where ever you come from and whoever you are, YouHearYou is here to support you. The symbol of the heart is a symbol of community, support, and love. The circle with individual marks symbolizes the community aspect and how we are all individuals, and no one is the same, and it's ok to be different. This circle also shows the inclusion of everyone. The heart in the center indicates the spread of love and support to all, including you.
Meet The Team
Josephine Switzer
Hi, My name is Josie! I am a senior in high school and I always dreamed of creating an organization to help others. So I took a class called senior project. In the course, we design our project and work to complete it with goals throughout the year. It allowed me to create my timeline for this business and decide what I wanted to do with the company. I decided to use the course as an opportunity to make that dream come true. I came up with the idea of YouHearYou and felt an ecstatic passion for it. The inspiration for this organization came from my expriences with mental health and hearing loss. I am hard of hearing and wasn't diagonsed until I was 14 years old. This late diagnosis could have caused some of my mental health issues. So I am using this organization to help bring awareness and support others. I have always seen myself starting an organization to help others, and here I am, trying to make a difference and make the world a better place. If you put your mind and soul into a dream, work, or goal you love, you can accomplish anything.
Founder
She/Her/Hers