Edmund Rice Camps

July and August saw four highly successful Edmund Rice Camps take place across our network. Stoke Camp opened the summer in the first week of the holidays, followed by Liverpool and Wirral in week two, and Manchester in mid-August. After several years of challenges — including changes in management and the impact of Covid — mentors reported that this was the first year in a long time where camps truly felt back at full strength.

I am incredibly proud of our mentors and deeply impressed by the time and energy they devote to this voluntary work. Teachers, doctors, financial managers and many others give up precious holiday time and commit themselves throughout the year to ensure these camps happen.

Over the past year, I have worked hard to build strong relationships with our mentors, many of whom I had not met before. Together, we have introduced new and refreshed structures for training, recruitment, safeguarding and core camp practice — systems that strengthen Edmund Rice Camps, align us more closely with camps in Ireland, and ensure the safety and wellbeing of everyone involved.

Our schools are also playing a bigger role. Host schools and those providing young leaders are raising the profile of the camps and becoming more actively involved — following the strong example already set by St Joseph’s and Stoke Camp.

Feedback from young leaders has been exceptional. Many spoke of how camp has boosted their personal development, deepened their commitment to others, strengthened their connection to the Edmund Rice family, and given them a real sense of achievement.

In October, we brought five mentors to Ireland for their Camps Review Day, renewing our links across the region and sharing ideas and best practice. The experience strengthened our sense of a wider Edmund Rice Camps community and inspired exciting future collaborations, including English leaders joining camps in Ireland and exploring a joint immersion-camp experience in the developing world. The following day, we held our own Camps Review and Planning Day, focusing on successes, areas for improvement, and long-term growth in recruitment, training, leadership development, communication and fundraising.

Recruitment for our next cohort of leaders is already underway in all our secondary schools, as well as our link schools such as Loreto Grammar and Upton Hall. The future of our camps is looking bright.

Watch our new promotional video.