Strengthening families, changing lives
Our History
In 1998, Bill and Dawn Campbell and their daughter Donna purchased a farming property in Nowra and donated this to the Foundation. The vision of the property was to build several cottages and a purpose-built 'special assistance school', William Campbell College.
In 2000, The property officially opened on the 1st December 2001 with two six-bedroom homes donated by the Property Industry Foundation.
In 2009, William Campbell Foundation was first accredited.
In January 2011 we opened the William Campbell College in temporary premises at North Nowra. We outgrew those premises and moved again temporarily to one of our cottages on our farming property.
In total, we had 10 children enrolled during this time. Due to a severe lack of Government Funding both State and Federal we closed our School on the 19th of September 2014. However, we have big plans to reopen the School once we have completed our purpose-built School on our farming property in Nowra.
From January 2017, Bill Campbell handed the role of CEO over to Sonia Liddicoat, formerly Operations Manager of Willam Campbell Foundation.
On the 26th of June, we released our new brand! This was a very exciting time at WCF, with the new brand supporting strategic direction, growth, and change.
Late 2017, the new Permanency Support Program was announced by Family and Community Services. The new Permanency Support Program replaces the Out of Home Care Program, to provide safe homes for life for children and young people.
From the 1st of July 2018, the new Permanency Support Program was implemented.
We engaged Katrina Scobie from Dual Design to design and prepare the plans for William Campbell College.
In 2019, the plans were passed through Shoalhaven City Council.
In 2018, We are also proud to have received the confirmation from the Office of Children's Guardian in September that we have successfully passed our accreditation renewal for a further 5 years!
In 2020, we celebrated our CEO, Sonia, on 10 year of services at WCF. Thank you for your hard work, dedication, and loyalty that helped make William Campbell Foundation what it is today!
We have started the process of becoming an NDIS accredited agency.
Unfortunately, in the 2019/20 bushfires, Cottage 1 on the farm was lost, Cottage two survived but everything around it and the rest of the 120 acres was completely burnt out. Cottage one had a lot of historical and sentimental value to us. It marked the beginning of the agency and our very first children and carers were placed here.
We are rebuilding Cottage 1 and renaming is the Marcelle House in dedication to Marcelle Dillon, a young lady who was involved with us very early on in the Foundation’s life.
In April 2023 we were successful in obtaining registration with NDIS which means we can deliver more specialised supports and service a greater number of participants.
William Campbell Foundation were awarded the Illawarra Women in Business Outstanding Not for Profit or Charity on 7 May 2023.
William Campbell Foundation was also a finalist in the 2023 Shoalhaven Business Awards for Outstanding Community Organisation.
In December, the Office of the Children's Guardian (OCG) advised us that William Campbell Foundation has been successful in gaining our 5 year accreditation with no further onsite assessment.
On 13 February 2023 we welcomed our first students to William Campbell College which was officially opened on 13 April 2023.