Welcome to Shannon Oates

“Life comes full circle”, is a saying I have been pondering and reflecting upon in
recent weeks. The literary, or philosophical meaning of life coming full circle often
means returning to the beginning or going back to our roots. Having, very excitingly,
joined the Edmund Rice England team in November 2022 – almost a decade after
leaving an Edmund Rice School – I have, in one sense of the word, come back to my
roots. This has been such a welcoming and warm thought to have when starting a
new job, and that sense of familiarity (of people, place, and values) have made the
first few weeks such a fulfilling one.

Going back to my beginnings, I am a former pupil of St Joseph’s College, in Stoke-
on-Trent (2006 – 2013). However, it was an assembly I was sat in during my sixth
form years that really hit home. It was not only here, where I started to actively
engage in the Edmund Rice Network but where I began to understand the impact
that you, as an individual, can have in the world, no matter how small. This assembly
was providing an opportunity to take part in an “Edmund Rice Camp” that summer;
spending a week of our summers giving children in the local area a summer holiday-
like experience they might not otherwise have had. I was immediately sold, of course
I’d love to do this, although I was apprehensive to sign up. None of my friends at the
time had, and I was not sure I had the confidence to stand up and sing, dance, shout
(all the things that make camp days so fun), in a hall full of people I did not know.
Signing up to camp, however, was one of the best decisions I have ever made, and
that first camp, 20 th – 24 th July 2012 was the beginning of a voluntary journey for me.
Following this first camp, I spent the next seven years ensuring that first week of the
summer holidays was free and dedicated to camp (and I have even gone on to lead
on camps in Salford, 2013-2015 and the Wirral, 2016). Even when I moved to
Birmingham to attend University in 2013, camp was always the one thing that
brought me back home, to Stoke every summer, and kept me connected to the place
I grew up in. More than this, camp has helped me open my eyes up to a world
around me, helped me to develop my leadership skills, and learn a lot about myself
in the process. In 2015, I was asked to be the co-ordinator of the Stoke camp – a
commitment I honoured until the end of 2019. I was hesitant at first: will I be able to
make this the best week for kids (and leaders)? How do I build upon what past
coordinators have done? Am I ready for this challenge? I was lucky enough to be
part of an amazing co-ordinting team, alongside Jasmine Joynson and Andrew
Pover, without whom we would not have accomplished all we had over those five
camps. During these years, we pushed the boundaries of what we thought we could
achieve. One of the most stand-out achievements from my time co-ordinating was in
2017 when we took 30 children and leaders, (many of whom had not left the
Midlands before) to Ainsdale beach. Unfortunately for us, in true British style, the
weather was poor. But this did not dampen our spirits. The day was full of laughter,
joy, new experiences, (at times chaos!) and far too much sand. It was the breath of
fresh air we needed on Stoke camp, and truly encapsulated our co-ordinating
philosophy, of giving children experiences they had not had before. A particularly
memorable moment was at the end of the day during our children’s reflection. We
asked each child to pick up a stone, and as we all stood in a circle each child was
asked to make a wish, which they then buried in the sand. I write this memory,
because I think it truly encapsulates what camps mean to the children, and leaders,

and the impact it has. Ten months following our beach trip, one of the leaders
messaged to say that she had seen some of the children from Edmund Rice Camp
at school. One child had told her that at the beach day, her wish was to come back
on Edmund Rice Camp the following year. This wish had come true, and she could
not wait to see everyone again.

I think that is always the true magic of camp, the joy, love, fun and sense of
community. For the leaders too, this is a story I share often, as recognition of the
difference they can make in the lives of these children!

What I have tried to bring from camps into my daily life is a commitment to social
justice issues, putting people and their experiences at the centre of what I do, and
that drive to make a difference, no matter how small. Being at University, this is often
challenging. It was not until the end of my MA in Religion, Politics and Society, and
now current PhD research I am able to do this. In my research, I spent almost a year
between 2019 and 2021 in Lebanon working with and interviewing women activists
during the Lebanese revolution. My aim was to understand how their understandings
and practices of resilience and resistance change over time during multiple points of
crisis. During these years, and ongoing today, Lebanon has faced significant
challenges: economically, politically, environmentally, including the Beirut port
explosion in August 2021. In having the privilege of working with these women, I
sought to place their stories and experiences at the centre of what I was researching.
We engaged of conversations of politics, gender, hopes for the future, social justice
issues and how they were looking to bring a positive hopeful future about for
Lebanon within such constrained difficult circumstances.

At first glance, my academic work may seem different to my early work on Edmund
Rice Camp. However, I believe the fundamental values are the same: commitment to
social justice, the importance of engaging with and listening to people’s experiences,
and the drive to bring about change in all forms. Whilst these commitments take
different shapes, they are ones I will take into my new role in the network and look
forward to doing so.