“We Are Here” Story Collection

Residents were asked, “Please tell us about an important moment in your life that would help someone understand what it’s like living in your neighborhood.” Explore 50 responses below, selected at random. Which stories capture your attention? (Some responses were transcribed by youth volunteers.) To learn more about the storyteller and how they interpreted their response, click “Zoom In.”

Stay in school kids

Listen back when I was child I hated school but when my mom told me “boy you better love school don’t ever let me catch that come out your mouth again” I dropped out right after she told me I had tons of friends but school is important because you’ll need in life. , counting money , reading books and getting good jobs
Zoom In

Living in Belle Glade

This is a very diverse community. A lot of different nationalities. When I came here, I was raised in a community in South Carolina where there wasn’t such a diversity. When I came here, I saw how … a lot of times in a place like this you have to live it to understand it. It’s a community where people get along but I don’t think people are as close as they should be because of their upbringing. It’s very complicated. My brother drove 18 wheelers, filled vegetables from the field and brought them to the plants. I would ride…
Zoom In

Value -Rickia

I mean pretty much what my sister said our family was very loving we had everything we needed when we were struggling we didn’t even notice my family with a great family and we stuck together through everything we kept our business out of the streets
Zoom In

A hole left in me

When Greg Bryant jr was shot in a drive by shooting on i-95. It impacted me and my brother a lot because we grew up with him and that shooting made me look at life different. I started doing things different and staying out of trouble
Zoom In

One nice help- laroderick richardson

My neighborhood is good and quiet so one day I was very sick and I fell and so I’m screaming until my neighbors came and they helped me up to the hospital and they moved but I was always talking on him and then I used to meet up places and we always had fun and talked
Zoom In

Give god the glory-billy penn

Living in this neighborhood is not about the drugs and the alcohol I was born in 1947 in Delray Beach hoping kids don’t follow in my foot steps if I got a problem I don’t do drugs but around people that do good and bad in my childhood never went to school
Zoom In

Wake up

Important moment is when me and my friends got older . When we was young we didn’t know what was going on. But we was aware of the things once we was teenagers. All the drug dealers and murders opened our eyes
Zoom In

Stay in school (Story #186)

In my community was all good but the high school was out of control because the students thought they could just run around wild getting girls pregnant , selling drugs and more things The kids now should stay inside the school And become some body
Zoom In

Met my soulmate

When I moved down here from North Carolina I was quite scared. My neighbor was very welcoming. She would always check on me and helped arrange my house. Now 10 years later were married with a child. Maybe I should’ve just moved down here way before then.
Zoom In

Up from the muck

I was an escort for the elite community club. It had a huge impact on me to be connected with the community.
Zoom In

A loving father/grandfather/ family first- Kene

The most important moment in my life, was when my grandson Gary was born. His mom and dad were very young, 17. So I took three years of my life to take care of him. He grew up to be an intelligent responsible young man. Wouldn’t be possible without the help of the community.
Zoom In

Life in Pahokee

The most important moment in my life were having my children. The hospital is now closed and it has really effected our community. We now have to drive to Belle Glade for healthcare. I came here in November 1970, married here in 1974. The roads on the way to my house have been needing fixing for years and nothing has been done. All the other roads have been fixed but they don’t care about ours in East Lake Village. I like Pahokee, its a nice quiet neighborhood. It’s not all that hustling and bustling like a big city.
Zoom In

Robbery

I remember one night I heard a lot of movement outside but I shook it off. Ten o heard screaming so I went outside and saw my neighbors got robbed. It frighten me because it could’ve been my house.
Zoom In

Helpful neighbors- Kene

About a month after moving into my house, it flooded. So at one point we lost our kitchen so our neighbors were nice and fortunate enough to bring us meals.
Zoom In

Living in my community

Neighborhoods with poor quality housing, few resources, and unsafe conditions impose stress, which can lead to depression. The stress imposed by adverse neighborhoods increases depression above and beyond the effects of the individual’s own personal stressors, such as poverty and negative events within the family or work-place.
Zoom In

Surviving

Living around here is pretty tough. At times you realize how people act as a community and how everything is seen. On an individual level it depends on how you look at it. All the things kind of go not so well. Growing up here i realized that this is a survival city. If you can survive here, you can survive anywhere. Living here will toughen you up or fold you. There is no in between. I wish as a community as a whole people could see the daily struggles. A few individuals ruin it for the whole. For examples…
Zoom In

Stay safe (Story #188)

Growing up in lake worth was some what good people treated others. Nicely until it got bad people started killing beach other. And other dangerous things my story is going to teach you how to Stay safe my community is not the same
Zoom In

Always forgive those who must be forgiven

Some times I think about the past how It used to be How people treated us cause I was coming up black people told me in lake worth that I wouldn’t be anything cause I was black cause I didn’t have any lack of knowledge , they said hurtful things that hurts till this day
Zoom In

What glitters isn’t gold

I am well known in my neighborhood. I have lived many places because of the hype others speak about but I always end up back here where it all started. Many places had nice homes, scenery and a lot of people but those places were missing Soul and Character. Here I have my family and my church and at this age that’s all I need
Zoom In

Humble Servant

Bring able to come back and give back to the community. Doing stuff for those who gave to me as a kid.
Zoom In

a loving village

an important moment in the interviwees life was a time when she was home and there was a fire next door and the whole commu ity came togheter to help the victims rebuild and get back to where they were.
Zoom In

Getting to Know Jupiter

I decided to move to Jupiter three years ago. I didn’t know much about it before but had so much to learn. So many people move to Jupiter and Palm Beach County from out of the state, I learned especially from the northeast. I sought to get to know the community, the good and the bad. I just wonder if the people moving down here do as well?
Zoom In

My child

Important moment in my life was having my first child . He changed my life in a way. With out him I would of been in the streets of boynton running wild
Zoom In

My community (Story #387)

In 2011, child poverty reached record high levels, with 16.7 million children living in food insecure households, about 35% more than 2007 levels.A 2013 UNICEF report ranked the U.S. as having the second highest relative child poverty rates in the developed world.According to a 2016 study by the Urban Institute, teenagers in low income communities are often forced to join gangs, save school lunches, sell drugs or exchange sexual favors because they cannot afford food.
Zoom In

Dance- Rickia Petty

I was raised in a time that war was all too comfortable and it seemed everyone around me was in a frinzy. I learned how to dance with the songs in my head to help me get through those times.
Zoom In

School Daze

Once when I was walking to school an early morning I immediately noticed that there was police cars swarming the school I later found out that the police were there because someone had gotten shot it was especially a traumatic experience for me because i simply was never introduced to violence such as so
Zoom In

My move to Pahokee, FL

When my husband decided that our family would move to his hometown of Pahokee, FL. I knew it would be a significant change moving from a metropolitan city, 1,000,000+ to a small city of about 6,000 people. My husbands return home was two fold. He wanted to be close to his family-mother, father, brothers and sister but also wanted to help his community by becoming the Mayor, which meant for him using all that he had learned and experienced, bringing it back home to Pahokee. He was adamant about returning home from the day we met…
Zoom In

Don’t judge

Well when I was going to lake worth high school it wasn’t a school for black kids it was on a segregated school Due to the people around us our community was dying no one liked the colored folks
Zoom In

Clean up the streets

What it’s like living in my neighborhood.Well you have 10th ave where the young boys sell drugs and the park where we have our little league football. Things bad around here no structure at all. Hopefully we can come together one day and clean up the streets .
Zoom In

Great out of the bad

graduating from the university of Florida and wining also the employee of the year and being raised up around the farming and family tight knit community.
Zoom In

Sports (Story #181)

Playing sports was a important moment in my life.It kept me off the streets and focused on something. Most of my friends was in the streets and now they dead or in jail .
Zoom In

Resilience comes at a cost

Working with a single mother who had become homeless in a neighborhood that she was raised in to find resources was very difficult. She didn’t want to be judged, labeled, or marginalized. But living now in the same neighborhood she once thrived in, gave her a new perspective as she realized the severe resource scarcity she was facing with 2 young children. Her story made me realize that life can happen to anyone and anytime and having access to resources in your own neighborhood can truly make an impact in how you bounce back from a traumatic event in your…
Zoom In

Made it happen

My home situation was slightly better than average when compared to the typical ghetto home life.My mom didn’t always work, but she took temporary work when she could and I never went hungry.
Zoom In

My husband- Devonte white

Coming up I had alot of important moments in my life. I was finding my husband and i still remember how theres where. Until he was killed by a drive by shooting.
Zoom In

Keep moving

originally from boynton beach since 1964 then recently moved to delray 2 years. All friends live in boynton .Since the late 90 killing increased . a lot more activities to do now. going to school was bad because of the people that attended . High school was seperated in two parts . First group of kids to go to congress middle school. Played tackle football in middle school. goes to work everyday plans on retiring no time soon. Hurricane andrew hut really bad . Found out about hurricant through radio. Hurricane lasted a couple of hours. Parents from florida. Full…
Zoom In

God bless

No mother should have to bury their child. The shooting that happened about a month ago in my area where I stay devastated a lot of people including me. I did not know the family but I supported them.
Zoom In

Nurse -Devonte white

Important moment in my life was going through nursing school. I always wanted to be a nurse and i made it into reality
Zoom In

New beginning- Kene

Well I’m originally from Columbia, came over when I was 8 years old, I didn’t know anybody, didn’t know English. It’s important to know English, and finding mindful resources. Also I’ve delivered toys to unfortunate families to give them toys. Gave homeless people clothes around winter to stay warm.
Zoom In

Hope and Vote to Change

Growing up in Pahokee, a small city in Western Palm Beach County, with nearly eight thousand residents. The people was proud and full of life. While people with jobs did not earn salaries like middle class earners today, more people had jobs and there own place to live. Today, our communities are faced with homelessness, a lack of jobs, substance abuse and violence without cause. I had a wonderful childhood. I recall having lots of friends and everyone in the community getting along without the drama of guns and gang violence. Parents could leave the kids home alone for a…
Zoom In

1963’s Boynton

Growing up In Boynton Beach in 1963 it was very tough for a young black person segregation and racism was still in affect and the civil rights were still going on
Zoom In

Teacher’s Choice

When she was a dance teacher and she had to help her dancers understand all the good things that come from this small town and how it builds character.
Zoom In

The life of cano

Violence different things happening people getting shot and drug deals basically the typical hood
Zoom In

Much Better

Better to live here from where I lived. Better opportunities in the community.
Zoom In

Refresh the page to see another random set of stories or view the stories and micro-narratives in a list.