Palm Beach County 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.
The stories and micro-narratives they submitted (as part of the We Are Here SenseMaker project) are listed below. Click ZOOM IN to learn more about the community member and how they interpreted their submission. NOTE: Some stories were partially transcribed by volunteers who shortened the narratives and referred to the storytellers in the third person (e.g., “her experience was” instead of “my experience was”).
Important moment in my life was just becoming a man. I had to learn to do for my self in these streets.
From experience coming from New York to here, you have more help up there. It’s harder to find resources down here. I was in a bad relationship last year that left me homeless. There are no shelters around here. Now I am better but at the time I had no where to go. I saw a guy walking out of an empty building and was wondering what he was doing in there. People were sleeping in empty buildings. I’ve had a lot of good experiences too. A lot of mission teams came and helped people fix up their houses and that’s nice to see. The First Methodist Church makes you feel really welcomed and help a lot. Pahokee isn’t that bad it just needs some work. Only a few people show up to the town meetings and obviously nothing is going to get done if no one is telling them what we need.
Buying my first house was a important moment in my life. Everything I got I had to work for it.nobody won’t give you anything around here.
Growing up in Boynton Beach wasn’t so easy. I been on my own since 16 years old. I have had me ups and downs but I still push through.
Graduating high school was a important moment. I was the first one in my family to graduate so I feel like that’s special. Where we come from not everyone cares about school.
Growing up in Boynton Beach it was tough because segregation was hectic!