Little Jam Band
Cassidy Csaszar’s career working with children has taken a variety of forms - elementary school teacher, child life specialist, social emotional learning specialist - but in each stage, she has found a way to incorporate music. It was only a matter of time before she decided to formally combine all of her passions into one program: Little Jam Band.
Cassidy credits her family with sparking her love for the field. “My family is very musical. We are all just very interested in it. My dad played guitar my whole life. I was always inspired by that.” When she was 11, Cassidy took her first guitar lesson, and it quickly grew into her passion. “It became my tool through life.” She remembers hiding away to write music when she felt overwhelmed with stress and needed to decompress.
When Cassidy became an elementary school teacher, she began incorporating music into her lesson plans to help teach her kids. She spent four years teaching in New Jersey and Georgia (where her husband, Seth, who was in the military at the time, was stationed.) It was at this time that her cousin was battling a relapse of childhood cancer. She describes traveling back and forth to CHOP to spend time with her, and she was continuously inspired by the impact of her child life specialists. “I thought, ‘How do I become one of these angels on earth?’” She discovered that there was significant crossover between her educational background as a teacher and that of a child life specialist, so she went back to school, completed her practicum and internship, and began supporting children in a different way: in the hospital setting.
Child life specialists have many roles in a hospital, including helping children understand medical procedures, easing their discomfort and fears, and teaching them age-appropriate coping skills. It’s a job that requires an understanding of child development, psychology, and the medical field. Cassidy describes covering not only the pediatric units at Virtua but also the adult units, helping alleviate the trepidation of children who had a loved one in the hospital. “I would bring them in and normalize the environment for them to eliminate their fears. I would explain the process in a way they could understand and provide therapeutic outlets.” Cassidy also describes traveling to disaster relief settings and using her skills to help children in shelters. In all of these roles, Cassidy always found that using music was a wonderful asset.
Once the pandemic hit, Cassidy began noticing that there was an influx of children coming to the hospital in mental health crisis. “We were at capacity.” She began brainstorming ways in which she could use her skillset to help children with their mental health in day-to-day life. She had an idea to create a mental health program for children in schools, and she discovered that a grant-funded program like the one she envisioned already existed. She jumped on board. “I’m a social emotional learning (SEL) specialist. I teach kids coping skills in school; we fill the gaps in mental health support in public schools.” Cassidy currently works in two of the nine schools the program covers. 
Once Cassidy returned to a school setting, she had her summers free again. “I had the luxury of my summers back, but I do not do well with downtime.” She began to wrack her brain for what she could do that would align with her passions and help her make money during the summer season. “I literally jotted down a list of all the things that I love. What it boiled down to was that I love child development, I love supporting wellness, I love community building, and I love playing music.” The concept of Little Jam Band started to form.
Cassidy wanted to create a musical program on the beach for children during her summers at Long Beach Island that could bring people together and leave them feeling good. “It was designed solely to bring joy and to bring people together, especially during a time when I felt like people really needed connection.” She had also been spending so much of her time working with children in traumatic situations that she felt this would be a good way to balance her life as well. “I tossed the idea around with some friends at dinner one day, and they were like, ‘That’s not crazy at all, go do it!’”
Cassidy began buying musical instruments and connecting with LBI Township to find a good spot for her classes. She found support in the local community. “At the same time that I was trying to build a community, a community of people found me. It was such a ripple effect. I was so grateful for that.”
She says that her classes took off quickly. “It was a blessing that I started in LBI, because it was a natural season where families were looking for things to do.” She credits the man behind the Instagram account LovelyLBI for helping her successfully launch. “He is phenomenal. His goal is to support LBI business and showcase the beauty of the island in different ways. I reached out just on the off-chance he would want to share what I was doing, and he did, and it took off like wildfire from there.”
Little Jam Band sessions are fun, colorful, upbeat, and enriching. Cassidy’s 0-5 year old class is all about exploration and connection. “A typical class is very free-flowing. Because of my educational background, I strongly believe in the impact of child-led play. I don’t tell you what to do with the instruments, I just have them there as an invitation. I lead with music and just allow the kids to feel whatever they feel at the time. They can explore as they are interested. I feel like that vibe allows families to relax and enjoy; it doesn’t feel so rigid.” Over the years, she has loved seeing families begin to connect with one another. “That’s the way it rolls. We do a lot of sing-a-longs, we do some parachute play, I try to keep it engaging and quick-paced so I can meet the needs of the kids.” She says she wants to create a space where kids feel free to openly express themselves and “just be.”
Two years after launching Little Jam Band in LBI, Cassidy decided to open a second class in Haddonfield, NJ, where she was living at the time. The space at Balance Studios Haddonfield (then HADUKO Academy) has worked perfectly. “My husband does Jiu-Jitsu. It’s his therapeutic outlet. When we lived around the corner, he connected at the studio for classes and started talking to the owner. He saw the space and thought about what it could offer Jam Band when it wasn’t otherwise in use. The owner is amazing… He wants to support local, small businesses in any way that he can, so he opened his doors to me. It worked out well. He runs youth programs for Jiu-Jitsu; we both have such a passion for building wellness in the early years. So we collaborate on that front. It’s a good fit.”Cassidy says that she has loved immersing herself in the tight-knit community of Haddonfield. “I just want to keep pouring into it, because it’s poured into me and my family so much.”
Cassidy and Seth have a son, Arlo, who frequently attends her jam band sessions. “He was coming to life when Little Jam Band started. I was pregnant during my first session ever.” She describes the monstrous task of trying to lug all of her instruments and equipment over the sand dunes onto the beach and setting up the cabana while being in the early stages of pregnancy. “But it was a blessing. I had no idea what parenthood was going to look like, but I was watching amazing examples of parenthood every weekend when I was hosting my sessions. I got to share in the joy of Arlo coming into the world, and my community helped me understand what my future was going to look like.”
Cassidy’s biggest goal right now is growing Little Jam Band. She currently only works part-time in the school districts so she can focus more on growing her business and enjoying time with Arlo. She runs a second music class for 0-2 year olds on Tuesdays so she can more specifically meet the needs of this developmental age. She describes this class as a little less boisterous with a little more hands-on guidance for parents. But she has so many more ideas for how she wants to expand.
“I’m leaning into this to see where it will take me. Whenever I pour myself into something, I allow it to show me where to go, and it’s really awesome. Jam Band brings me so much joy, so why wouldn’t I pour into that?” As she is entering her fourth year of running her groups on LBI, many kids are starting to age out, so she is thinking about what additional classes she could offer them. “I am thinking of potentially starting a ukulele circle and teaching kids how to play. Maybe I’ll merge both my worlds and make SEL small groups that incorporate music. I might run a group where we analyze song lyrics and see how they make us feel.” She describes her brain as a “good idea fairy… but I need to synthesize it all in a way that makes sense. I am open to all the possibilities.”
Cassidy has written a children’s book that she is publishing this year. “It uses SEL elements and sea creatures to explore how emotions feel and teach coping skills. It’s rhythmic.” She is thinking about turning the concepts in the book into songs and incorporating them into her Jam Band sessions as a way to “learn about feelings through song and story.”
Cassidy says that she is shocked and grateful at how her idea has come to life. “I just literally jotted down a list of what I love, and it boiled into something so meaningful. It has created such a great space for me personally. I didn’t realize when I started that I also needed support too. Now, in all the areas in my life that I like to show up, I’ve got such a strong system of support behind me.”
