ABA & GLP | Innovation Field Notes
Inspired by Venezuela’s FESNOJIV Sistema program, in 2009 Canada’s New Brunswick Youth Orchestra launched Sistema New Brunswick (SNB) in Moncton, New Brunswick. Since then, SNB has worked to inspire children and youth to achieve their full potential through learning and performing orchestral music with a major objective in mind: breaking an intergenerational poverty cycle which affects 21.7% of the province’s children. Through partnerships with local schools and generous financial support for the government, SNB currently serves more than 1100 students in nine centers across the province. After twelve years of operations, Sistema New Brunswick is applying its knowledge and experience by launching an ambitious expansion plan.
Having understood what elements are required for successfully developing an orchestral node (or núcleo) and having a stable financial footing, in November 2021 Sistema New Brunswick announced a long-term 15-year plan, which seeks to raise $12 million over the next five years. This plan will duplicate the number of students the organization serves on a daily basis, thus serving a total of 10,000 students by 2036. The plan envisions the creation of five new centers, two satellite centers, two additional regional youth orchestras, and a new in-school program. According to Ken McLeod, president and CEO of the organization, “parents, teachers, and students themselves have told us about the deep advantages of participating in the Sistema program: youngsters have presented increased concentration and discipline, better behavior and better school results, bigger self-confidence, and better self-esteem.” With this initiative, Sistema New Brunswick shows that sometimes innovating does not require doing new things — you can innovate by expanding the impact of that which you are already doing well.
Learn more at Sistema New Brunswick at https://sistemanb.ca/
Authored by GLP 2022 Cohort members
Hannah Carpenter (New Zealand), Barbara Domingos (Brazil), Katie McDermitt (United States), Nathan Mertens (United States), & Mauricio Peña (Colombia)
