The Shepherd Centre — Campbelltown

The Project

The Shepherd Centre supports deaf and hard-of-hearing children across Australia, providing the early intervention therapy, audiology, and family support that give these kids the best possible start. They identified Campbelltown as the right location for a purpose-built facility to bring specialist services closer to families in South Western Sydney who needed them most. Root Partnerships took on the full development advisory and project management role on a pro bono basis, contributing our expertise as a charitable commitment.

The Challenge

This wasn't a standard project management brief. The Shepherd Centre didn't have confirmed capital funding, they needed a delivery pathway that could be developed to a shovel-ready state and then held until funding materialised. That meant structuring the entire project so it could pause and restart without losing momentum, while also finding contractors willing to work at cost as a charitable contribution. Aligning the goodwill of the construction industry behind a cause, on terms that genuinely protected the client, required careful relationship-building and real procurement skill.

My Approach

I provided the full suite of development advisory and project management services, covering planning, programming, design management, and contractor engagement, all pro bono. The design evolved into a cluster of gabled pavilions with vertical metal cladding, connected by a shared courtyard and landscape, with the spatial qualities you'd expect of a purpose-built therapeutic environment. I identified contractors willing to donate their margin and deliver at cost, negotiating arrangements that protected The Shepherd Centre's interests without exploiting the goodwill being offered. We developed the design through to a detailed architectural model that demonstrated the scheme's quality and rigour before a dollar of construction funding was committed.

The Outcome

The project reached a shovel-ready state with construction costs established at $4-5 million, a committed contractor team, and a design that does justice to the work The Shepherd Centre does. When funding is secured, they can proceed with confidence.

This project matters to me personally. It proved that the skills I'd built in commercial development advisory could be directed toward something beyond profit. And that conviction, that the built environment should serve communities first, is what drives every decision I make at Yaxley Studio.