A passion to empower children and young people to take control of their future led Lutheran Care staff member Krystle Manto to a career in child protection, which has spanned 20 years.  

Krystle is dedicated to helping children and young people understand their past does not dictate their future: a life lesson Krystle has lived herself, after growing up in an abusive home. We are shining a light on Krystle’s story and achievements as part of National Child Protection Week, which falls this week (1-7 September, 2024).

Currently, Krystle is a Therapeutic Practitioner for Lutheran Care, and has held various roles across the sector including specialist care team leader, foster care case worker, plus residential care worker and team leader. Through her residential care roles, Krystle supported children and young people from diverse backgrounds including those who have experienced trauma, people living with disability, human trafficking victims and refugee minors. 

“I love the opportunities I’ve had to walk with a variety of young people,” Krystle says. 

“I think it’s helped me be more compassionate and down to earth.” 

Throughout her professional career, Krystle has been instrumental in establishing a new disability residential care program in South Australia and has also supported the growth and development of Lutheran Care’s specialist care program. 

“When I’m involved in training carers and youth workers on therapeutic parenting, I love those light-bulb moments, when someone learns something new and feels hope for the next time they face a tricky behaviour,” Krystle says.  

Through her involvement in training youth and case workers on therapeutic parenting, Krystle has mentored close to 60 people, with a large number of them still working in the sector. 

Many of the youth and case workers Krystle has mentored have linked their prolonged professional careers to her guidance, leadership, and care.  

Krystle credits her longevity in the sector to three key people who stepped into her life when she was 15.  

“They became my mentors as I started helping out at church and processing my own trauma,” Krystle shares. 

“It was through their constant love and positive regard that I began believing in myself and then wanted to do the same for others.” 

Krystle is committed to equipping young people with skills and tools to become thriving adults, and in recent years has been contacted by multiple people whose lives she has positively impacted, who have highlighted that her belief in them enabled them to believe in themselves. 

“A few years ago, I had a young woman contact me to tell me that I was her favourite youth worker when she was a kid; that thanks to me she felt hope and that she could overcome all she had been through,” Krystle says. 

“She wanted to tell me that she had finished high school and was now studying nursing; that she was with a long-term partner and had just welcomed their first daughter into the world. She said that I was her parent role model and had shown her how to parent. 

“Another young man contacted me to say that he was now studying music to be a producer and that it was my belief in this dream back when he was only nine-years-old that made him think he could actually do it.   

“He had always loved rap, and I had given him a little book filled with rhyming words so he could use it to write his rap songs which he would then sing to me – they were great.” 

Outside her professional career, Krystle and her husband have long-term guardianship of two children, who were two and seven-years-old when they arrived in her care back in 2016.  

“I think it makes me more empathetic for carers’ journeys and the struggles they face,” Krystle says. 

Krystle encourages those working in the sector to believe what they are doing is meaningful. 

“Maybe not to everyone, and maybe not all the time, but over the years you get to have those moments where you do see what you are doing matters, and you hold onto them,” Krystle says. 

“This is not the job for quick rewards; this is the type of work where it may takes years to see the impact and that can be hard, but when it comes it is so much more rewarding. 

“I think to last, you need to have a good sense of humour and be content with the small successes. 

“I may not make a difference to many, but if I make a difference for one, it’s worth it to me.”