Why I started Hold the Line.

Where Hold the Line began

Hold the Line began with my work at Our Place Society during COVID. Frontline workers kept showing up, running on adrenaline and fear while the people we supported faced crisis after crisis.

There was a lot of conversation about burnout. There was much less room to stop and talk about what had happened: the person we'd lost, the interaction that scared us, or the experience we couldn't quite shake. Too often, the next thing needed our attention before we'd had a chance to process the last one.

When the adrenaline wore off, the experiences people had carried did not simply disappear. I saw how that cumulative, unprocessed weight could become burnout and compassion fatigue.

Who is supporting the people who spend their working lives supporting everyone else?

That question stayed with me. Hold the Line grew from it: a way to make room for real conversations, practical tools, and support that understands the work.

How I got here

I've spent more than a decade working in employment and community services in Victoria. I've managed programs, supported people facing complex barriers, coached staff, built partnerships, and watched colleagues do extraordinary work with far too little space to process what they carry.

The idea for Hold the Line grew from those experiences and from listening to other frontline workers. In March 2026, I brought people together to talk about what support was missing. We kept coming back to peer connection, shared tools, useful training, and the need for organizations to act on what workers are telling them.

That conversation made something clear to me: support cannot depend on an individual worker finding one more way to cope. Teams need habits that help. Supervisors need practical tools. Agencies need to hear patterns and follow through.

Hold the Line is my attempt to build that support with workers and agencies, starting small and learning as we go.

About Ashley MacDonald

I'm a Victoria based employment and community services professional. I currently work as a Job Coach with Beacon Community Services' BEAMS project. Before that, I led employment programs at Our Place Society and Training 4 Jobs, including developing People in Progress. My work has brought me alongside frontline staff, participants, volunteers, and community partners across the region.

I bring program design, facilitation, and a stubborn belief that people doing hard work deserve practical support that actually fits their day. Hold the Line is an independent project in development; my current employer is not presented as a sponsor or partner.