My youngest sister was born with Down Syndrome and Autism when I was eight years old. Over the next 10 years, I became known in my family as “The Universal Alina Translator”. I had the ability to understand my sister in ways my parents and siblings couldn’t. To this day this is a skill that has helped me in many ways, working with the special needs community here in Charlottesville. I am currently working as a caregiver responsible for supporting and documenting on 5 individuals with various levels of intellectual and/or developmental disabilities. Overall responsible for all the participants of The Charlottesville Adult Activity Center (The CAAC) On a daily basis I support the participants with hygiene, feeding, personal goals centered around the individual. I take them on planned outings in the community and another role within The CAAC, is that I keep an account of each individuals’ money, where they go and how much they spend. I have extensive knowledge of alternative feeding routes, such as with a gastrostomy tube, medication and first aid administration and knowing what do to in medical emergencies, such as with seizures. Another aspect of this job is dealing with the behavioral side of our individuals. Skills such as patience, empathy and the desire to provide understand what the individual is communicating are essential to this position. These are strengths of mine that I continuously work on to improve and maintain, through listening and putting myself in the other person’s shoes.