“I wanted to do something a little more purposeful.” – Karenina Trinidad Karenina Trinidad is the Fundraising Coordinator at Harbour Light Vancouver. She was drawn to Harbour Light as a place where she could work with purpose but also have the ability to give back. “The best thing is the people I work with. And also, I can see the impact of how it changes a life when I’m working at Harbour Light,” she said. Harbour Light, located in the Downtown East Side of Vancouver, offers a variety of programs ranging from community meals, shelters, addiction treatment, spiritual care and more. As a fundraiser, she works with both monetary donations, as well as in-kind donations and services. All donations make a direct impact on the lives of the clients who access these programs and services. Karenina enjoys getting to know the clients going through the treatment programs and seeing them grow. “You can see their resiliency, you can see their strength… You can see the actual growth from our different clients.” One of Harbour Light’s programs is Chaplaincy. This gives clients the opportunity to explore on outings. “An important part of recovery is the ability to find what’s fun, to rediscover what you like. Some of the things that were said by clients are that they’ve never been outside of the Downtown East Side or they’ve never gone to Whistler and they’ve never been out in nature before,” she said. Karenina says that “part of addiction is you may not know what activities you like to do. The outings let the clients discover their sense of play in a non-judgemental way.” To learn more about Harbour Light and the programs they offer, visit https://vancouverharbourlightsa.ca/