Our First Decade: 1998-2008

In January 1999, Fund patron Simon Callow and then Lord Mayor Cllr Sue Anderson launched the four schemes for the distribution of the Fund. These were scholarships to cover fees for college courses; bursaries to meet ongoing student expenses; one-off grants for special equipment and materials; and free places on short courses to help young people discover talents that may lead them into higher education later on. Later in the decade, we instituted a scheme to provide computers for care-leavers.

Our first two awards were one-off grants for equipment and clothing to a Kosovan Albanian asylum seeker studying English at Matthew Boulton college, and an fine-art student for equipment and materials required for her course at Derby University. By our fifth anniversary, in 2005, we had made grants to 35 young people. In 2005 we began the tradition of celebrating the graduation of our beneficiaries with a dinner hosted by the Lord Mayor, Cllr John Hood. A year later, we mounted an art exhibition of the work of Charlene Clempson BA MA, our first post-graduate beneficiary, to mark her MA from St Martin’s College of Art and Design. The exhibition was opened by then Lord Mayor Cllr Mike Sharpe, and 11 of Charlene’s paintings were sold.

As we began to promote the fund and receive applications, we also instituted a series of events to attract both care-leavers and young people still in care to consider careers in the arts. For a number of years we supported young artists attending the city’s Gallery 37 “Arts Under Canvas” summer project, sponsoring trainees in jewellery, textiles, photography, music, dance, film-making and animation.

The Fund also mounted a series of Taster Workshops to introduce care-leavers to various branches of the arts, including steelpanning and music technology (led by Pato Bantan), comedy acting (led by Celia Imrie), the physical aspects of performance (led by Rachel Gartside and Pal Aron), singing (led by Black Voices), rap (led by Djan Hammett) and Caribbean dance (led by Julia Joseph-Barrett). In 2003 the workshops were retitled Saturday Samplers. The Fund also organised seven visits to the Birmingham Repertory Theatre. We began the tradition of commissioning a beneficiary to design the Fund’s Christmas card, which has continued to this day.

Later in the decade, we ran workshops of writing and art in children’s homes, led by visual artist Jim Morris and former Birmingham poet laureate Dreadlock Alien.

Initially, the fund was financed from donations made in the wake of Eve’s death. Fundraising events in the first decade included a series of annual dinners held in Eve’s memory (titled Midsummer Night’s Eve), with guest speakers including comedian Steve Nallon, politician Clare Short MP (then Secretary of State for Overseas Development), actor Richard Wilson and novelist David Lodge. Collections were held at Patron Professor Ann Davis’s inaugural lecture and during the run of Patron Simon Callow’s production of The Pajama Game at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre. In 1999, the Fund was chosen as one of Cllr Ian McArdle’s charities during his year of office as Lord Mayor of Birmingham (raising £8,000 for the Fund).

In September 2000, the then Lord Mayor (Theresa Stewart) named the Aftercare Service Building Eve Brook House.

During our first decade we gave 88 individual grants to 73 young people, studying everything from fashion, fine art and performance to counselling, sports and animal care (as well as traditional subjects like maths and English). We raised £152,526 and spent £108,848 on young people.

In 2001, Judy Wenban-Smith took over from Jonathan Bratt as Moseley Labour Party representative and Treasurer.