Jami Daigle – School Age Childcare and Camp Director
Resides: Swanzey, NH
Hometown: Keene, but has moved around the Monadnock region
Age: 27 y/o
Likes: Being outside, her cat Millie and puppy Hailey, puzzles and painting, hiking, and growing the after-school program at the Y!
If you’re looking for someone to take a hike or make oobleck with, Jami is the woman to go to!
This week’s Staff Spotlight goes to our School Age Childcare and Camp Director, Jami Daigle!
When you can’t find Jami in the Children’s Learning Center here at the Y, you can bet you’ll find her out in the woods or on a hike with her boyfriend and his son or puzzling her heart out.
“We spend a lot of our weekends just outside with [my boyfriend’s son]. He plays soccer so we have been attending a lot of soccer games recently… If we’re not outside I like to do a lot of puzzles and painting, I do a lot of painting too.”
At home, Jami has two pets, her three-year-old cat, Millie, and a six-month-old puppy, Hailey.
“[Millie] is the spunkiest cat, she plays fetch, she returns home with a whistle, she is a very good kitty,” Jami said.
Although hiking and outdoor adventures take up most of her free time, Jami used to play softball.
“I played a lot of softball growing up and I played in the women’s league for a while… I worked [at my last job] for 5 years and its 45 minutes away… so I didn’t have time to [play] but I’d love to pick it back up in the near future,” she said.
Jami also got her Masters of Applied Behavioral Analysis from Arizona State University last year.
Since coming to the Y, Jami has been very hands on in the expansion and progress of the childcare program.
“When I’m not [with the kids], I have been working with Pastor Mike over at the Church of the Nazarene. We’ve opened a second site over there… They started over there on November 6th. I’ve been spending a lot of time working to get that program up and running,” she said.
Jami said that a major goal of hers is to grow the curriculum of the after-school programs and make them more engaging for the kids.
“I have been spending a lot of time looking at STEAM activities… to help the curriculum of this program to not just be a babysitting service at the end of the school day. I want to keep their brains moving, I want to keep them learning through play and I want to see them continue to thrive and have a positive after school experience,” she said.
Jami said that her favorite type of activities for the kids are sensory activities because of how involved the kids can be.
“I try to do a sensory activity every week with the kids. I love making slime and playdough. We’ve made oobleck and moon dough and we try to create different sensory options for them,” she said. “It’s my favorite thing to do because they get so involved in the creation process and really getting their hands dirty in making it. It builds their fine motor skills.”
Growing up, Jami’s mom taught Rape Aggression Defense courses, or RAD for short. They are a type of self-defense course that help teach skills of how to protect yourself if you end up in a tough situation.
“I would love to bring something like that here [to the Y] to offer to our members and our young women, our high schoolers, to try to help them feel more confident going off to college or going into the world,” she said.
Jami said that when she first took the course at 16, it helped her feel more confident in her ability to get herself out of tricky situations. She’s been an advocate for women to take RAD courses ever since.
“I felt that it definitely kept me safer, and I felt more empowered that I knew how to handle that situation,” she said. “I’m a huge advocate for it, so I’d love to get it here because this is such a community involved place so what not better to give to the community than something to protect themselves.”
Jami had previously worked at the Y from 2012 to 2018 in the Y’s childcare. Since coming back, she has seen a widening of the Y’s mission in the community.
“There have definitely been things that the Y has opened up and is a part of more things in the community now… They give back on a larger scale,” she said.
In her experience, returning to the Y has provided her the space to develop as a childcare professional, and the Y has given her a sense of support.
“I have felt a huge sense of security and people want me to thrive here,” she said.
In the future, Jami would love to see more behavioral education and support for the staff and kids in the childcare programs. Jami said she would want to see a behavioral specialist come in and work with the staff.
“I would love to see more trainings and opportunities for classroom staff to get knowledge of behavioral management, even to bring in a behavioral specialist to help with some of our friends who are really struggling with behavior at a young age,” she said. “That early intervention is such a huge thing.”
Jami wants the community to know that the staff of the Y’s childcare are dedicated to what they do and are here for the betterment and growth of the children.
“The staff here care so much about all of the children that walk through this door… Every single staff is because they want to be here and because they love what they do [who] they work with,” she said. “Having an environment like that provides such safety and care for these kids.”