For the first instalment of our Conversations series for 2025, we sat down with Kristen Holgate, a leader whose passion for supporting others has helped shape her eleven years with LiveBetter.
Kristen, LiveBetter’s Head of Social and Community Support, has over the years seen firsthand some of the challenges experienced by both consumers and employees as they navigate an ever-changing human services sector. Despite this, she remains focused on the positives, drawing inspiration from the joys and successes – both big and small- she’s seen customers experience during this time.
In this conversation, Kristen tells us what attracted her to the care sector and how she came to work at LiveBetter. She also shares her insights on not only surviving but thriving, in a fast-evolving sector and an unpredictable world.
A bit of background
Kristen grew up in the North-Western Sydney suburb of Kenthurst. She recalls always wanting to do something with her life that would help people.
“I think I always wanted to work in a field where I could help people, so when I went to Uni, I did an undergraduate degree in Psychology.”
Yet, the more she learned, the more she began to realise that a person’s environment and social circumstances determine their choices and opportunities as much if not more than their inner psychology.
And it was in this area that she felt she could make a difference.
“Psychology didn’t feel like the right fit, which is why, after I graduated, I started looking for work in other areas– and how I ended up at LiveBetter.”
After graduating, Kristen moved to the Central West town of Orange to take up a Case Management role at LiveBetter, and eleven years later she’s still here, sharing a home with her husband Stirling and their two fur babies, Abby, an eleven-year-old Border Collie and Benson, a six-year-old English Springer Spaniel.
LiveBetter
After starting at LiveBetter, Kristen continued in the Case Management role for four years, gaining vital experience working alongside an experienced team of case managers, and stepping up into acting leadership roles along the way.
2017 saw the roll-out of the NDIS in regional NSW, which changed the terrain for consumers and providers of disability care. Case Management ceased to be a funded service offering, and many of LiveBetter’s Disability Case Managers, including Kristen, transferred into Support Coordination. It wasn’t long before Kristen was promoted to Team Leader.
”This was my favourite role – a role where I felt I could really make a difference.
I think what both Case Management and Support Coordination taught me is how to work. They taught me the value of people having choice and control over what they want and need.”
Kristen’s time in Case Management and Support Coordination also taught her the importance of respecting people’s choices.
“People will make different choices and they’re not always going to be choices that we would make, but it’s what they want. It’s what works for them in their life – and that’s OK.”
Kristen is the first to acknowledge the many changes in the human services sector over the past decade, and how it impacts the way we operate today.
“The sector is always changing. What was once considered ‘good practice’ is not necessarily appropriate today. I think that being comfortable with change and learning that change can be a good thing is important.
Things will change and that is OK. I know it can be hard, but the one constant in life is change.”
Connection to Community
Kristen is passionate about her work and believes that supporting people to stay connected with their communities is vital for their ongoing well-being.
Three years ago, Kristen took on a management position with the Core Supports team, and the following year she was offered the role of Head of Social and Community Support – a role that is such a good fit, it might have been specially designed with her in mind.
“I look after such a fabulous team. They run our social and community supports for both people with disability and people who are aging.
Social support, helping people to stay connected to their communities, is just so important – especially for people living in rural and regional Australia. I know we sometimes get referred to as the “fun” supports, but I believe what we do is essential. We help people to have a good quality of life.”
Quick questions:
- What is the best thing about your work?
“I love the people we work with – our customers, their families, and the staff. I love that it feels like an actual community – we really do have a LiveBetter community.”
- What is the most challenging thing about your work?
“We’re working within a system that we don’t have much control over. We often see people needing support that they’re not funded to receive, and that can be really difficult.”
- Top tip to manage work-life balance?
“My top tip is to actually have a work-life balance! I learned that the hard way. LiveBetter was my first full-time job and when I started I was not so good at managing my work-life balance. I would often take work home with me and I ended up working extremely long hours.
I think I’ve now reached a point where I can acknowledge that it’s OK to finish the day with things still on my to-do list. It was a hard lesson to learn, and it was a matter of prioritising what’s actually important and what can wait till the next day.
It wasn’t easy to do. It took me at least five years to learn. But now…I don’t think I’ve seen an empty to-do list for at least five years – and that’s OK.”
- What keeps you going, getting up and doing it all over again, each day
“Seeing our customers having a really good day. I’m based at 4C in Orange which means I still get to interact with our customers and our staff every day. I get to see them having fun, achieving goals, and just doing some amazing things. That’s what keeps me coming back.”
- Where to next?
“I’m currently finishing my Master of Social Work. It’s still in the ballpark of Psychology, but just feels like a better fit for me.
For now, I’d just like to finish it and see what might open up for me. I’ve had so many different roles at LiveBetter, and none of it was planned. They were all opportunities that opened up for me and that I was willing to take the risk and run with – and it’s worked out.
I’ve been with LiveBetter for a long time, and I have no plans to leave – I love it here.”
- If there was one piece of advice you could give to others who are starting in the community sector, what would it be?
“Give it a go. It’s a rewarding sector to work in and there are so many different opportunities.”
