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”).
Well coming up in the city of lake worth. I wasn’t Always a girl who had friends No one liked me because of my skin or where I came from they used to pick on me. , call me names , billy me because what I wear and what I language I speak
2 shootings has happened that I know about his year in my community. That hurts me. Why is what I ask myself. Is this what the world is coming to?
In December 2017, the United Nations special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Philip Alston, undertook a two-week investigation on the effects of systemic poverty in the United States, and sharply condemned private wealth and public squalor
When my dad told us that we were buying house . It was a great moment for us , because we wanted a bigger room for each of us . We had been sharing the same room between 3 kids. We were super excited when we found out we wouldn’t be sharing rooms anymore. We were happy to see that we had a big yard . But we were sad to leave our old house and neighborhood we lived in. We were excited though to move.
Positive: My kid and the community. Been cutting hair 27 years in community. Had ups and downs. Took 16 years to get off cocaine. Depends on god. Can do better. Robert Mitchell (commissioner): Trying to get own walmart in Belle Glade. Hard for kids to avoid negative environments. Parents also have influence on kids’ growth. Not a lot of hobbies for kids to do in community because small town. Trying to make the best of it. Started working at 5. Knows how to build a house from the ground up, did a lot of criminal stuff, but prays to god. Just living life. Comes from a Jamaican family, did best to get around. Life is what you make of it, but children need guidance.