With limited marketable skills and low education achievement, Natalie is the first to admit that finding employment will not be easy. However, she realizes that she not only needs the financial benefits of working, but the consequences of working. She wants to feel useful and productive in completing tasks successfully, and more importantly she sees a need to extend her social networks.

Natalie strongly believes that employment would go a long way in helping her with her psychiatric condition beyond all the medication that she has to take. She therefore sees work as a personal need and knows there will be some sacrifices that she will have to make. There are a number of obstacles, including the time-consuming public transportation system and her limited education, that make it a challenge for her to get the volunteer experience that she sees as a stepping stone to eventually finding gainful employment:

And I am prepared this time because I have already been down that road. And I know how financially it affects me. 'Cause it already affected me when I went to upgrading. So I know this time what's in store for me. I'm not going to rely on anything. So it's going to be hectic but I need to do this for me. And then I need to have a job. I need to get out there Well it's going to give me experience…And if I do well, it will give me a good reference. It will further me.

To Natalie, the key to making this work lies in her organization:

Once I get the routine down, I'll be okay 'cause I like to be organized. I'll prepare the night before. I mean their clothes are always laid out for them at night before I go to bed. Their lunches are always made at night in the fridge because I am not a morning person…I need to get up and have my coffee. I try to get up before them.