About this organisation
Summary of activities
The Shepherd Centre is a world-leading charity helping children and young adults with hearing loss learn to listen and speak. We work closely with families to give them the knowledge, encouragement and support they need to ensure their child can achieve their full potential in the world through their listening, spoken language, literacy and social skills. A cost benefit analysis by the international consulting firm Deloitte calculated that we provide a benefit of over $500,000 for every deaf child we help. In 2022, The Shepherd Centre provided life-changing service to over 800 children and young adults with hearing loss. The vast majority of our students develop the same speech, language, literacy and social skills as any other child; helping them to continue their journey within the mainstream school system regardless of the level of their hearing loss. Our services are available across Australia with 11 locations plus our online telehealth program, which enables children from remote and rural locations to achieve the same speech as their city counterparts. Online telehealth is also popular with families from all locations when attending a centre is inconvenient. To read the results we achieve and see stories of some of the children and young people who benefitted from our service, please visit: https://shepherdcentre.org.au/hearing-loss-our-results/ During the year, the charity Hear For You joined into The Shepherd Centre, bringing its wonderful life skills and mentoring programs supporting teenagers with hearing loss. To achieve these incredible results, we work with the whole family providing integrated services including specialised speech pathology for deaf children, audiology services (including an integrated cochlear implant bionic ear program), family counselling services and many group programs to prepare children and teenagers for the challenges of the mainstream world. The Shepherd Centre relies heavily on the continued support of generous donors to make our life-changing work for children possible. We receive limited government funding, including from the National Disability Insurance Scheme, which sadly does not cover the full cost of delivering our fantastic outcomes for deaf children and their families. Our top priority is to ensure our world-class early intervention services are accessible to all families and children who need it. We can only continue to achieve this through the generous support of our donors. If you would like to find out more about how you can make a life-changing difference to a deaf child at The Shepherd Centre, please visit: https://shepherdcentre.org.au/support-us/.
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Outcomes
Outcomes are self-reported by charities
Programs and activities
Name: Audiology and Implant Service
URL: https://shepherdcentre.org.au/first-sounds-implant-program/
Classification: Hearing care (Health > Out-patient medical care > Hearing care)
Beneficiaries:- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
- Adults - aged 25 to under 65
- Children - aged 6 to under 15
- Early childhood - aged under 6
- Families
- Females
- Financially disadvantaged people
- Males
- People from a culturally and linguistically diverse background (or people from a CALD background)
- People in rural/regional/remote communities
- People with disabilities
- Youth - 15 to under 25
Name: Specialist Early Intervention Hearing Service
URL: https://shepherdcentre.org.au/new-early-intervention/
Classification: Speech and hearing rehabilitation (Health > Rehabilitation > Speech and hearing rehabilitation )
Beneficiaries:- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
- Early childhood - aged under 6
- Families
- Females
- Financially disadvantaged people
- Males
- People from a culturally and linguistically diverse background (or people from a CALD background)
- People in rural/regional/remote communities
- People with disabilities
Name: Mental & Emotional Wellbeing
URL: https://shepherdcentre.org.au/meet-team-child-family-counsellors/
Classification: Mental health counselling (Health > Mental healthcare > Mental health counselling)
Beneficiaries:- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
- Children - aged 6 to under 15
- Early childhood - aged under 6
- Families
- Females
- Financially disadvantaged people
- Males
- People from a culturally and linguistically diverse background (or people from a CALD background)
- People in rural/regional/remote communities
- People with disabilities
- Youth - 15 to under 25
Name: Education Support
URL: https://shepherdcentre.org.au/how-we-help/our-programs/school-age/
Classification: Education support (Education > Education support)
Beneficiaries:- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
- Children - aged 6 to under 15
- Early childhood - aged under 6
- Families
- Females
- Financially disadvantaged people
- Males
- People from a culturally and linguistically diverse background (or people from a CALD background)
- People in rural/regional/remote communities
- People with disabilities
- Youth - 15 to under 25
Name: Digital Health Platforms
URL: https://hearhub.org/
Classification: E-health (Health > Out-patient medical care > E-health)
Beneficiaries:- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
- Children - aged 6 to under 15
- Early childhood - aged under 6
- Families
- Females
- Financially disadvantaged people
- Males
- People from a culturally and linguistically diverse background (or people from a CALD background)
- People in rural/regional/remote communities
- People with disabilities
- Youth - 15 to under 25
Name: Parent and Family Coaching/Capacity Building
URL: https://shepherdcentre.org.au/learning-hearing-impaired-children/
Classification: Family disability resources (Human services > Family services > Family disability resources)
Beneficiaries:- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
- Adults - aged 25 to under 65
- Adults - aged 65 and over
- Children - aged 6 to under 15
- Early childhood - aged under 6
- Families
- Females
- Financially disadvantaged people
- Males
- People from a culturally and linguistically diverse background (or people from a CALD background)
- People in rural/regional/remote communities
- People with disabilities
- Youth - 15 to under 25
Name: 7. Life Skills, Inclusion and Leisure
URL: https://hearforyou.com.au/
Classification: Social inclusion (Human rights > Diversity and intergroup relations > Social inclusion)
Beneficiaries:- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
- Children - aged 6 to under 15
- Early childhood - aged under 6
- Families
- Females
- Financially disadvantaged people
- Males
- People from a culturally and linguistically diverse background (or people from a CALD background)
- People in rural/regional/remote communities
- People with disabilities
- Youth - 15 to under 25
Name: 8. Community Awareness and Upskilling
URL: https://hearhub.org/professional-development-hub/
Classification: Community information (Community development > Community information)
Beneficiaries:- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
- Adults - aged 25 to under 65
- Adults - aged 65 and over
- Children - aged 6 to under 15
- Early childhood - aged under 6
- Families
- Females
- Financially disadvantaged people
- General community in Australia
- Males
- People from a culturally and linguistically diverse background (or people from a CALD background)
- People in rural/regional/remote communities
- People with disabilities
- Youth - 15 to under 25
Name: Regional, Rural and Remote
Classification: Healthcare access (Health > Healthcare access)
Beneficiaries:- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
- Children - aged 6 to under 15
- Early childhood - aged under 6
- Families
- Females
- Males
- People from a culturally and linguistically diverse background (or people from a CALD background)
- People in rural/regional/remote communities
- People with disabilities
- Youth - 15 to under 25
Name: 10. Life Stage Transitions
URL: https://hearforyou.com.au/what-we-do/program-overview/
Classification: Transition planning (Human services > Personal services > Transition planning )
Beneficiaries:- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
- Children - aged 6 to under 15
- Early childhood - aged under 6
- Families
- Females
- Financially disadvantaged people
- Males
- People from a culturally and linguistically diverse background (or people from a CALD background)
- People in rural/regional/remote communities
- People with disabilities
- Youth - 15 to under 25
Finances
What is this?
This graph shows how much revenue (money in) and expenses (money out) the charity has had each year over the last few years. Charities have many sources of revenue, such as donations, government grants, and services they sell to the public. Similarly, expenses are everything that allows the charity to run, from paying staff to rent.
What should I be looking for?
First off, this graph gives a general indication of how big the charity is - charities range in size from tiny (budgets of less than $100,000) to enormous (budgets more than $100 million). You're also looking for variability - if the charity's revenue and expenses are jumping up and down from year to year, make sure there's a good reason for it.
Unlike companies, charities and not-for-profits aren't on a mission to make money. However, if they spend more than they receive, eventually they will go into too much debt and run into trouble. As a very general rule, you want revenue to be slightly above expenses. If expenses is reliably above revenue, the charity is losing money. If revenue is much larger than expenses, it means the charity might not be using its resources effectively. It isn't always that simple, however, and there's a lot of reasons a charity might not follow this pattern. They might be saving up for a big purchase or campaign, or they might have made a big one-off payment. If you're worried, always look at the annual and financial reports to understand why the charity is making the decisions it is.
What is this?
If a charity receives more money than it spends, that's a surplus (in business, it would be called profit). If it spends more than it receives, that's a deficit. This chart shows surpluses and deficits for the charity over the last few years.
What should I be looking for?
Unlike companies, charities and not-for-profits aren't on a mission to make money. However, if they spend more than they receive, eventually they will go into too much debt and run into trouble. As a very general rule, you want a charity to make a small surplus on average. A deficit means that charity lost money that year, which may indicate poor financial management or just a series of bad circumstances. If the charity always has a huge surplus, it means the charity might not be using its resources effectively. It isn't always that simple, however, and there's a lot of reasons a charity might not follow this pattern. They might be saving up for a big purchase or campaign, or they might have made a big one-off payment. If you're worried, always look at the annual and financial reports to understand why the charity is making the decisions it is.
What is this?
This chart compares the amount the charity receives from various sources, including donations (i.e. money given by the general public or philanthropy), goods and services, government grants, and other sources.
What should I be looking for?
Donations are an important source of revenue for some charities. Others rely more heavily on government funding, or on revenue from other sources. This is an indication of how much they need donors to accomplish their mission. Note that there is no 'good' or 'bad' amount of donations for a charity to have. It might be interesting to look at values over time - are they going up or down? A charity that gets less donations every year may be in trouble.
What is this?
Assets are things that the charity owns that are worth something. This could be anything from a car to investments. Similarly, liabilities are debts or obligations that the charity owes to someone else, like a loan or an agreement to pay for something.
What should I be looking for?
Firstly, in general a charity should have more assets than liabilities. If it doesn't, it implies that the charity might not be able to pay its debts, and you should look very closely at the charity's annual and financial reports to make sure they are taking steps to remedy this. Current assets should generally be above current liabilities - that means the charity can easily pay off the debts that are coming due soon. Beyond that, look for a large stockpile of assets. While a charity should have enough assets to keep it afloat in hard times (a 'buffer') if that stockpile gets too large the charity could be using that money more effectively. As always, if you have concerns check the annual and financial reports.
Transparency
Scoring detail
Details