Anti-poverty scheme used by 1,800 children in scotland

Sistema Scotland says it is “on a mission” to use its Big Noise projects to change the lives of children in some of the country’s most deprived areas.

The Big Noise orchestra in Douglas will be the fourth community project the organisation has set up in Scotland, the first of which was in Stirling, in the Raploch area of the city.

Projects were also set up in Torry in Aberdeen and Govanhill in Glasgow.

More than 1,800 children engage with the orchestras at the three centres.

The £2.2 million anti-poverty scheme will be set up in Douglas, and it is hoped to bring “permanent social change” to the area, according to Sistema.

A report conducted by the Scottish Government highlighted 90% of parents of children in the Raploch programme felt their child was happier as a result of being involved with the Big Noise orchestra.

A further 80% of parents felt their child had better concentration, was more focused and more disciplined in their lives as a result of learning to play a musical instrument.

Research by the Glasgow Centre for Population Health concluded the scheme could deliver more social benefit than the resources used to deliver it.

Sistema Scotland took its name from a Venezuelan project called El Sistema – Spanish for The System – which was set up by Maestro José Antonio Abreu in 1975 and the Fundacion Musical Simon Bolivar.

José Abreu set up the programme to use music as an “instrument of social organisation and human development” in deprived areas in Venezuela.