“We Are Here” Stories (List View)

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”).


Nov 16, 2018

Basketball- Devonte white

I believe basketball was a important moment for me . It changed my life so many ways. It taught me things i can also use in life
Nov 17, 2018

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.
Mar 4, 2019

Much Better

Better to live here from where I lived. Better opportunities in the community.
Sep 19, 2018

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.
Sep 10, 2018

The Betsey Ida story

In the past half a century the world has transformed, with the advent of the internet, medical advances and leaps forward in social equality.But much subtler changes which only those who lived in past decades can understand have also permeated society.
Dec 13, 2018

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