Community Support

The Tassie Challenge - Raising Funds for The Shepherd Centre in 2001.

The Shepherd Centre teaches children who are deaf and hearing impaired to listen, understand language and speak through their auditory Learning Program. The Centre works with infants and pre school age children with the aim of fully integrating them into the school system.

Many of the families that use the centre have additional needs related to cerebral palsy, downs syndrome or autism.  The Shepherd Centre also offers a National correspondence Program for isolated families.

Receiving only limited government funding The Shepherd Centre relies on the generosity of the community and its corporate partners to continue to provide the program – free of charge – to all families that seek help.

The Shepherd Centre’s goal was to fund the “Age of Identification” program, enabling early intervention at an age when optimum results can be achieved for the child.  This means that babies that are detected with a hearing impairment through the Early Detection Program can be quickly placed in an Early Intervention Program such as that run by The Shepherd Centre.  The goal of the Tassie Challenge was to make a significant financial contribution to the funding of The Shepherd Centre’s “Age of Identification” program – using technology to enable a child’s right to communicate. 

Creating an adventure that simulates the challenging environment of a deaf child wasn’t easy.  The Tasmanian wilderness was chosen because of its remote location, isolation and barriers in achieving a level of communication taken for granted in our every day lives. 

As you can see from the photos, a whole new world of communication was discovered for our participants as well as the recipients of The Shepherd Centre’s “Age of Identification” program!  Click here for more information about The Shepherd Centre.