About this organisation
Summary of activities
The Shepherd Centre is a world-leading charity empowering generations of children and young people with hearing loss learn to listen, speak and have a voice. We work closely with families to give them knowledge, skills, encouragement and support so their child can reach their full potential and have a world of choice. 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 2023, The Shepherd Centre provided life-changing service to over 900 children and young adults with hearing loss. The vast majority of our children develop the same speech, language, literacy and social skills as any other child; helping them to attend their local school of choice, 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 access the same services as their city counterparts. Online telehealth is also popular with families from all locations when attending a centre isn t possible. We provide individual and group programs and supports for children and families in early intervention (0-5 years of age), school age therapy services (5 16 years of age), and life skills and wellbeing programs for young people and teenagers with hearing loss through our Hear for You mentoring programs (9 -18 years of age), run by our Hear for You mentors with hearing loss (18 25 years of age). To achieve these incredible results, we work with the whole family providing collaborative and coordinated services including specialised speech pathology for deaf children, audiology services, including an integrated cochlear implant program run in partnership with the Sydney Children s Hospital. Child and family counselling services and parent and extended family group programs prepare children and teenagers for the challenges of the mainstream world. Our newly developed digital platform HearHub, provides clinicians and educators tools, courses and resources to support children with hearing loss and their families around the 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 does not cover the full cost of ensuring deaf children can learn to listen and speak and their families supported appropriately. Our top priority is to ensure our world-class early intervention services are accessible to all families and children who need it, and are here to empower generations of children with hearing loss for many years to come. If you would like to find out more about what we do and how to make a life-changing difference to a deaf child at The Shepherd Centre, please visit https://shepherdcentre.org.au/.
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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