Shared on November 2, 2020 in the My Voice
Mrs. Veronica Bowleg lost her beloved son, Ervin, during the COVID-19 pandemic. While he did not die of coronavirus, she wants to let her community know to take care of themselves so they don’t suffer the loss of loved one as she has. “When my son died, I couldn’t be there by his side. Ervin didn’t die of coronavirus, but I wasn’t allowed into the hospital because of it." What none of us knew was that Ervin...
Shared on September 20, 2018 in the We Are Here SenseMaker Project
I remember after the annual roots festival which took place every year a group of us would go on Atlantic ave and post up while the nice cars passed by after the festival let out. This was tradition up until 1999 when the than Delray Beach police Chief order his officer to suite up in riot gear and come disperse of the crowd. I remember feeling helpless and going home and asking my mom, Why would they treat us like that...
Shared on March 26, 2020 in the COVID-19 SenseMaker Project
The coronavirus have infected my life a lot I am very depressed I do the crossing guard for the school and I’m not getting paid and only the teachers getting paid they say we going to go by April 15th but that’s no guarantee because I got a very good feeling it’s only a month left for school to May 30th so they probably not going to even go back I don’t know how I’m going to pay my next bill...
Shared on December 6, 2018 in the We Are Here SenseMaker Project
I have lived in the same place on and off for most of my life with the same neighbor . Maybe about ten years ago sadly her husband past . Now am 42 with a son so what we do on weekends we cut her grass for her like he husband use to do .
Shared on July 20, 2020 in the NOW SenseMaker Project
My name is Kim. With this Pandemic I've experienced ups/downs/frustration/aggravation/ but most of all how to pray more. I can't say that I'm 100% back to normal I just try and deal with this COVID day by day. It took a toll on me in the beginning my anxiety level went sky high. I can say that it was a learning experience on how to better prepare for the worst. I do believe It will help me better in the future with patience for many people...
Palm Health Foundation began collecting personal stories from community residents in 2018 in order to better understand the communities, connect youth with their local history, give communities a voice, and develop activities to improve health and well-being. Recognizing the complex web of factors that influence health outcomes, the foundation used the SenseMaker® tool and methodology. The tool allowed residents to play a central role in assessing, evaluating, and responding to the challenges in their neighborhoods.
March 2020 – April 2021
The coronavirus pandemic has had a deep impact on the health and well-being of communities throughout Palm Beach County. More than 900 stories and short observations were shared between March and September. The project reopened in November with an updated prompt.
June 2021 – June 2022
The Glades Tri-City Facilitators are a group of residents who collected stories about their community and facilitated groups to make sense of the data. The data and stories served as a launch for several community projects intended to generate “more stories we want, fewer stories we don’t want”.
July 2020 – November 2020
How have residents of Palm Beach County, Florida, coped with the events of 2020? In this ongoing project, residents are invited to share a story, idea, personal experience, or something they’ve witnessed that will help future generations understand what 2020 was like.
August 2018 – March 2019
Can stories and SenseMaker data gathered from local elders and residents help youth in Delray, Boynton and the Glades think differently about the future of their communities? This project marked Palm Health Foundation’s first use of SenseMaker as tool for giving communities a voice and data leading to new ideas.
September 2020 – Present
Mini-grants are funds for small nonprofits and individuals to support healthy eating, physical activity, and access to care among Palm Beach County residents. Healthier Together provides mentoring and grantwriting workshops as well as a platform to network and collaborate.
Spring 2021
The Equity Voices group submitted stories (or micronarratives) through SenseMaker.
By sharing their voice, community members have confirmed what Palm Health Foundation already knew, that many experience a lack of access to healthy food, safe spaces to walk outside, reliable transportation, and a multitude of other challenges that contribute to poor health outcomes.
After hearing their stories, Palm Health Foundation established The Neighbors Helping Neighbors Fund to assist our community’s most vulnerable residents. This fund puts small grants directly into the hands of residents who are struggling to pay their rent, access food, receive medical treatment and more. This fund will aid in efforts to help our neighbors recover, rebuild and plan for the future. Learn More
