Part of living a fulfilling life is knowing your purpose. For those of us that choose the path of community work, you have to have passion and independent drive to work with marginalized community organizations. In the fourth week, that was our continued conversation. Why are you driven to a path of non-profit community work?  What motivated you to want to work with organizations that work toward fixing social, economic, racial, familiar, and educational inequities? For many other summer fellows and me, it was experiencing or family members experiencing hardship, obstacles, or discrimination that affected the quality of life. In my case, surviving poverty as a child and as an adult as a single parent meant learning how to break the poverty cycle from working poor. There were many hard lessons, sacrifices, and stress from barely making it. On the other hand, some people are motivated by the acknowledged privilege they have had in their lives and recognize the inequities. For them, that means working with organizations that help build up marginalized communities or groups. So, it starts with identifying what you care about and applying your skills toward contributing to the greater good in a way that matters to you—ask yourself what you care about in your community. Understanding what you value most may help you narrow your life purpose to something manageable that genuinely resonates with you. I have worked with most marginalized populations except for the older population. Working with this organization has shown me how the older population struggles to maintain independence and basic needs. Like poverty, aging has unavoidable obstacles like declining health and financial and housing stability. At Home By High director’s why was the hardship from an inability to get supportive service for her aging mother with health issues. Her experience being her mother’s primary caretaker showed her gaps in the system that does not support the aging population. Knowing why can help you find effective solutions to community or population needs. In my experience, many organizations provide short-term solutions to basic like food and clothing, but the organizations that assist a person with long-term and stability issues like housing and financial stability are fewer. One of the members of AHBH, that just turned 89 expressed how he needed help physically maintaining his apartment due to his inability to do all the housework from lack of dexterity and unreliable home health aides. You do not think about those things when you’re an able body person. Surviving poverty and housing insecurities can mean experiencing soul-crushing obstacles and hopelessness, especially if you are working poor. There are no easy solutions or quick fixes, but having allies that are aware of their privileges and dedicated to making more equitable and stable communities along with people who know the struggles and have insight and effective ideas for change are essential. If you do not know why, how do you expect to have an impactful, purposeful life?