In her sixth year as an at-large city councillor and seeking a fourth term, Ayanna Pressley is not resting on her laurels.  

“I don’t govern complacently and I don’t campaign complacently,” Pressley said. She remains visible in the neighborhoods, and in the council chamber, as the Nov. 3 election day draws near.

The councillor said she has been working long days and regular 60 hour work weeks, starting her mornings at 5 to 5:30 a.m. and getting home again between 9 and 10 p.m.

“I find great reward in what I do,” she said. She considers her work week to stretch across all seven days in an array of hearings and local appearances.

Pressley voted against the city council raise, justified by some of her colleagues primarily as a reward for commitment to their jobs and their constituencies. She has been outspoken in asserting that the system in place by which the city council recommends and approves its own pay increases is not acceptable. That isn’t why she’s in the business of public service.

“The work I’m doing is this life’s work,” Pressley said. She calls her duties matters of “moral imperative,” especially when it comes to advocating for women and vulnerable populations, spearheading efforts on trauma.

“I’ve found it critical to focus on very specific areas you’re looking to move the needle on,” she said, noting that she could not do her work without partnerships on the council and in the communities she serves.

Pressley hosted her fifth hearing on trauma on Oct. 14, a four-hour meeting that intended to be a culmination of her work in the area up until that point. She oversaw the hearing “to discuss the status of a city coordinated trauma response and recovery system for survivors of violence and homicide” as part of her role as founder and chair of the council committee on Healthy Women, Families, & Communities.

Councillors Sal LaMattina and Tito Jackson joined her in the hearing, which she convened because, “I believe that in the same way that hope ripples, violence travels, devastating and destabilizing families who struggle to recover from the loss and trauma they’ve experienced.”

It is an issue of core concern to Pressley, who said exposure to trauma impacts all aspects of lives, especially when the trauma is experienced at a young age. Experts gathered from medical centers, schools, and city service departments, among others, to offer testimony and vision regarding trauma response.

Renée Boynton-Jarrett, a pediatrician at Boston Medical Center, said, “Trauma is not an experience that cannot be recovered from, if you are able to reestablish safety, if you are able to reestablish social connections, and you have access to timely, appropriate, therapeutic treatment. But all of those conditions are necessary.”

While there is work to be done with assessing the extensive testimony and potential plan components laid out in the trauma hearing, Pressley has also continued advocating an initiative to build community economically.

After fighting for years to facilitate the efforts of restaurateurs seeking liquor licenses, Pressley’s home rule petition to remove the cap on liquor license was enacted in 2013. The State legislature passed a version of the petition in 2014, granting an additional 75 licenses over three years and reducing the previously prohibitive cost of applying for a liquor license. Of those, 60 are restricted to historically marginalized neighborhoods like Dorchester, Roxbury, and Hyde Park.

On Saturday, the counselor went on a tour (DINE617) of several neighborhood restaurants who have received their licenses, including the one that inspired her legislation: Dot2Dot Cafe in Dorchester.

Local eating establishments are the “social and economic anchors of the neighborhood,” Pressley said. Easing the financial burden can allow them to better become hubs of life and community.