Our Second Decade: 2008-2018

In 2008 we celebrated our tenth anniversary, producing a 15-minute DVD promoting the Fund, narrated by Simon Callow. The anniversary was also celebrated with an evening reception hosted by Birmingham solicitors Anthony Collins, addressed by a number of fund beneficiaries and also by Baroness Helena Kennedy, and Birmingham's Lord Mayor, Cllr. Randal Brew.

Steve Nallon auctioned a range of donated art works, including a piece by beneficiary Charlene Clempson. Overall, the Fund raised £17,500 during its anniversary year.

Now that the existence of the Fund was well known, we were able to attract many more applications. In the first year of the second decade we spent over £24,000, including major grants to seven young people.

A significant proportion of applicants were from two groups who were not entitled to student loans: unaccompanied asylum-seekers and an increasing number of care-leavers doing post-graduate degrees. Our asylum-seeker beneficiaries included students studying engineering, international relations and law, while our post-graduates included students studying screenwriting, cultural and creative industries, classical drama, management, health care policy, social work, fashion, philosophy, politics and health economics, education, and forensic mental health.

Our first first-class degree was awarded to a former asylum-seeker studying mechanical engineering at Birmingham City University. In 2015 our first Open University student, a legal secretary, began a six-year course in forensic psychology.

The major development in our offer following the government’s decision – implemented in June 2016 – to extend its student loan scheme to cover post-graduates. Hitherto, we had paid the fees of eligible post-graduate students. We decided to continue to contribute to the costs of post-graduate care-leavers, in the form of a no-strings-attached bursary of £3,000, which students could use to supplement their maintenance or accommodation allowance or to reduce their burden of student debt. Almost all the growing number of Birmingham care-leaver post-graduates now apply for and receive the bursary.

Our first graduate celebration in our second decade was a dinner for Ruth Flynn LLB to celebrate her graduation from a legal practice course at the Birmingham college of law.

Beneficiaries continued to design our annual Christmas card. In 2009 beneficiaries of the Fund designed Birmingham City Council’s children’s services calendar.

During our second decade, our Fundraising events established a regular pattern. 2009 saw our first annual pub quiz, which raised over £600, and was compered by Mrs Barbara Nice (aka comedian and actor Janice Connolly). Subsequent comperes of the quiz included actors Andy Hockley, Ian Billings and David Edgar (the actor, not the chair of the Fund). Following a successful graduation lunch held in a city centre Bangladeshi restaurant, the Fund established a tradition of annual spring curry nights, in which generous restauranteurs would provide meals at cost, and the Fund would keep the difference between the cost and a modest charge. Both the quiz and the curry night featured raffles.

Less regular (due to British summer weather) were barbecue summer garden parties, which nonetheless raised good sums for the Fund; during the decade music by Trustee Phil Smith’s band became a feature, and the band also did successful bucket-collection gigs for the Fund at the Highbury pub .

In 2010 the Fund held a reception for 2010’s graduates, again at solicitors Anthony Collins, welcomed by Birmingham’s then Lord Mayor, Councillor Len Gregory. The event raised £2,500, primarily from an art auction at which the guest auctioneer was actor and impressionist Jan Ravens. In 2012 Moseley Labour Party members Peter and Pat Bailey organised a fundraising dinner for the fund, hosted by Birmingham City Councillor Lisa Trickett.

Another feature of the second decade’s fundraising was sponsored events, including Carol Austin’s Paris marathon, Councillor Steve Bedser’s Birmingham half marathon, and past and present Treasurers John Rouse and Judy Wenban-Smith (alongside Janis Goodall and Alan Wenban-Smith) walking the 18 miles of Wenlock Edge and raising £1,725. We also collaborated with the Kings Heath Centre Partnership’s Highbury Hall ball, which raised £1,000 for the Fund. By the end of the decade, the curry nights, quiz nights and summer parties were raising regular four-figure sums.

The second decade also saw a considerable increase in support from other Trusts and Foundations, alongside earnings from events and individual donations and standing orders.

Overall, during our second decade, we raised £247,438, spent £217,527 on young people, and we helped 201 young people in all. At the beginning of our second decade, 48 Birmingham care-leavers were studying at University; five years later it was 65 and by 2006 over 100.

Following Judy Wenban-Smith’s retirement as Treasurer in 2009, Moseley Labour Party appointed John Rouse as its representative, and Treasurer of the Fund. In 2018, the Trust was expanded, to include long-term supporters Deborah Shaw, a former children’s lawyer and now counsellor, social worker Phil Smith, and Birmingham’s former Executive Director for Children’s Services, Alastair Gibbons.