Incorporated in 2020, Hear Your Song, Inc. () is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that empowers children and teens with serious illnesses and complex health needs to make their voices heard through collaborative songwriting. Hear Your Song provides power and choice—and a microphone—to young people with a wide range of diagnoses, both physical and mental health conditions, that so often deprive them of both power and choice in their day-to-day lives. At Hear Your Song, we believe that every young person deserves the chance to define themselves on their own terms.

In kid-driven, trauma-informed songwriting sessions, Hear Your Song volunteers work with youth participants to guide them through the process of writing their own songs about anything they want, from loving pasta to living with epilepsy. Youth songwriters write all their own lyrics and generate ideas for musical style, instrumentation, and tempo. Volunteer composers and musicians then use those ideas to set the words to music and record the song exactly as the songwriter imagined it to be heard, celebrated and shared. Some youth songwriters just write their lyrics and others choose to sing on the recording themselves and to compose and produce their own music — the journey is up to them!

Hear Your Song partners with pediatric hospitals, camps, schools, and other nonprofit programs that serve kids experiencing serious illnesses and complex health needs. Hear Your Song’s volunteers collaborate with kids through campus-based chapters and at the organization’s national level.

Please visit www.hearyoursong.org for more information.

Hear Your Song seeks a part-time Programs Coordinator to start late February 2025.

The Programs Coordinator will work alongside the Programs Manager, Music Directors, and Executive Director to organize and schedule songwriting sessions for individual youth songwriters, recruit volunteers for each songwriting session, and play an active musical role in leading songwriting sessions and collaborating with youth participants. This role is all about communicating enthusiastically, sensitively, and responsively with families and volunteers. At Hear Your Song, we are all artists who believe in the powerful impact of music and songwriting and who are passionate about giving youth more opportunities to make their voices heard. We are seeking a Programs Coordinator who recognizes, and resonates with, our organizational values of creativity, collaboration, empowerment, inclusion, flexibility, and joy.

FAMILY & VOLUNTEER COMMUNICATIONS

• Schedule in-person and virtual songwriting sessions and other activities for individual youth songwriters/families
• Recruit volunteers for each songwriting session
• Share updates with families on the status of songs-in-progress
• Act as primary contact for families and for youth-facing volunteers to build meaningful relationships across the Hear Your Song community

SONGWRITING SESSION FACILITATION

• Act as a songwriting session facilitator in in-person and virtual sessions
• Support and mentor volunteer songwriting session facilitators
• Collaborate with youth songwriters in contributing to the composition, production, and recording of songs-in-progress

ORGANIZATION-WIDE

• Maintain database of Hear Your Song’s youth participants, families, and volunteers, songs, and songwriting sessions, in partnership with programs team
• Participate in Hear Your Song’s amplification efforts, including concert events and virtual community gatherings as we bring kids’ songs and stories to wider audiences

QUALIFICATIONS

• Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent experience
• Experience working with youth, especially in arts programming
• Excellent organizational and written/verbal communication skills
• Significant musical background and experience
• A flair for email correspondence
• Commitment to creating and sustaining inclusive spaces
• Flexibility and responsiveness in a creative, collaborative environment
• Experience using G-Suite, especially Google Drive
• Sense of whimsy and wonder
• Ability to work a flexible schedule

PREFERRED BUT NOT REQUIRED

• Advanced guitar or piano skills
• Experience working with youth with health needs and/or disabilities

SCHEDULE: During the school year, Hear Your Song currently follows a flexible Sunday—Thursday work week to best accommodate youth participants’ schedules. Very occasional weekday evening and Saturday programming are possible.

HYBRID POSITION: While the office at 48 Wall Street is accessible to staff 24/7 and songwriting sessions do frequently take place in person, there is significant remote flexibility in this role.

TRAVEL: Hear Your Song has several residential summer camp partnerships in upstate and Western New York each summer: we hope all part-time staff will participate in at least one camp partnership (between 4 and 8 days) each summer. All travel, accommodations, and meal costs during those programs are covered. (And they’re really fun, we promise!)

Please submit to jobs@hearyoursong.org:

• A résumé
• A cover letter OR short video, in which you
  • Explain your relevant experience and share why you are interested in the position and the organization, and
  • Choose a song from Hear Your Song’s YouTube channel and share why that song particularly resonates with you