“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”).


Sep 19, 2018

Sad but happy days

I remember there was an incident of a boy getting shot by my house. The whole city was not so much shocked because we know how it is nowadays. But the thing is everybody in the community was there for the parents and family like we all were family.
Sep 19, 2018

My community (Story #383)

It is often said that efforts to fight poverty have failed. Surveys suggest only 5% of Americans think that anti-poverty programmes have had a big impact; 47% say they have had no impact or a negative one.
Aug 30, 2018

Don’t be the one

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
Sep 19, 2018

Changebis needed

Being stopped by the police all the time because of what I look like. Police love stopping and asking questions. Not matter what the age. But it does matter what the color. That needs to change.
Sep 17, 2018

The Day at the Store

I Remember as a young adult about 18-20 when me and my mother were at a local store and I was referred to as “boy” by a white man. My mother didn’t react calmly at all to this she yelled at the man for his disrespectful attitude and words. At first I had no clue why my mother would react like that.As time passed by and I grew older I realized she felt him calling me a “boy”was degrading. Because our past during segregation she explained how that reference would always be degrading no mater what.
Mar 4, 2019

Lack of support

Family fueds