[2] He has served as Director of the Affordable Housing and Social Innovation at the Wellesley Institute (WI), a non-profit and non-partisan research and policy think tank in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
He did not go before the bar but instead began to work at the Christian Resource Centre[10] as a homeless outreach worker and community and housing developer.
[13] In 2004 Shapcott entered electoral politics by running as the New Democratic Party's candidate in Toronto Centre in the 2004 federal election[14] placing second to Liberal incumbent Bill Graham.
He is licensed to serve as a Deacon in the Diocese of Kootenay, in the Ecclesiastical Province of British Columbia and Yukon, Anglican Church of Canada.
Over the years, Shapcott has been appointed to and has served on governmental bodies at the federal, provincial and local level, including the Downtown Community Health Board, Toronto Board of Health (1990), the Corporate Minimum Tax Working Group of the Ontario Fair Tax Commission (1991) and numerous others, He continues to be active in governmental issues, most recently serving as an appointed member of the Columbia-Shuswap Regional District's Sorrento-Blind Bay Incorporation Advisory Committee (2019 - current).