Scaling What Works

How do you scale a successful social innovation in a down economy? If something increases literacy scores by 100%, what needs to happen for it to go from one pilot school to 200?

I drove back to Fredericton tonight with this thought after spending the day at Activate - the Business Community Anti-Poverty Initiative (BCAPI) day long conference in Saint John.

BCAPI, brain child of the insatiable Bill Gale, and long championed by J.D. Irving Ltd., the day gathered the province’s heavyweights of industry including J.K. Irving, Jim Irving, Gerry Pond, Derek Oland, Aldéa Landry, and many others to talk about poverty and the role of the business community in reducing it. As Gerry Pond said during his remarks, this gathering was likely the first business to business meeting in Canada dedicated to the reduction and eventual eradication of poverty.

The conference happened in the middle of the New Brunswick Government’s poverty reduction public engagement process. Phase II consisted of a series of roundtable discussions across the province listening to citizens. Phase III, a “Final Forum,” occurs later this year.

What struck me was the frustration shown by business leaders with not being able to expand programs that are working. P.A.L.S. (Partners Assisting Local Schools) was the most frequently cited example. The program matches literacy mentors with struggling children in schools where over 40% of the students come from poverty. It works. In one cohort at the Prince Charles School in Saint John, literacy levels doubled from 33% to 66% in two years.

The business community, particularly through the New Brunswick Business Council, has started to spread this model to other schools across the province. A school in St. Stephen and Ganong Bros. have started a similar program. As have Barrett Xplore and a school in Woodstock. It’s an amazing example of emergence.

When the business community went to government to look for support to expand and deepen the program’s impact, government initially met their request supportively. But soon the broader government agenda took over. The initiative went from a poverty reduction strategy to the community schools initiative (CSI). This is not a knock against the CSI. It’s great and needed in NB. However, depending on how the community and school engage, it may not be a poverty reduction strategy. So poverty levels remain. Then a recession hits and government has to make difficult decisions. Budgets are reduced and anything not deemed essential is cut, including money promised to expand and deepen P.A.L.S.

So the question remains of how to scale social innovations like P.A.L.S when money is tight. One idea with strong support was for a more united voice from business that government should primarily allocate scarce tax dollars to education over all other files. This alone won’t ensure an increase to P.A.L.S. - this needs more than government - but it would be a good start.