“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 15, 2018

Don’t do nothing

Growing up in boynton wasn’t always the best we didn’t have the school we wanted we was in and out of Trouble my brother and I Was Trouble makers
Sep 19, 2018

It’s life

My race has always given me a problem. Police always tend to look me up and down. Stop me in stores and ask questions. No specific moment but jut life in general.
Mar 16, 2019

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.
Oct 3, 2018

Do better

My neighborhood hood was terrible and we loved quick when we realized someone died every week. We didn’t like it and wasn’t what we were used to i was scared to sleep there.
Nov 17, 2018

Value- Rickia petty

I grew up in a great neighborhood. I had a lot of family around me and we all stuck together. You would never have known we didn’t have a lot.
Sep 19, 2018

My life (Story #98)

Many of them have worked for decades examining poverty-related issues—from hiring discrimination to segregation in housing and education, criminal justice reform to immigration, deep poverty to homelessness. Even though they had devoted their lives to fighting poverty, some of the participants asked whether their work made any difference at all.