“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 1, 2018

Not the same

Things changed out here , the streets used to be full of kids. Now days kids are getting killed and on all type of drugs. Things have got tougher around here also. The community can’t come together for nothing .
Sep 15, 2018

My community (Story #423)

My neighborhood is filled with children,I see them having fun playing ball but I also see them fighting. They either arguing with their parents or just fighting with the other kids . long been clear that children from troubled neighborhoods have worse outcomes as adults. But it has been much harder to disentangle whether these neighborhoods cause the later disadvantage, or whether the hardships that lead families to bad neighborhoods are the problem.
Dec 21, 2018

One nice help- laroderick richardson

My neighborhood is good and quiet so one day I was very sick and I fell and so I’m screaming until my neighbors came and they helped me up to the hospital and they moved but I was always talking on him and then I used to meet up places and we always had fun and talked
Sep 18, 2018

Stay in achool

School wasn’t for me so I dropped out I don’t know why I made that choice but it must’ve been because I was. Hanging out with the wrong crowd And I was to busy in the streets instead of the books
Mar 4, 2019

Great out of the bad

graduating from the university of Florida and wining also the employee of the year and being raised up around the farming and family tight knit community.
Sep 26, 2018

The Wrong Guy

I’m sure there are many stories like this one because of the ridiculous amount of police brutality incidents. I had let my grandson use my car to run a few errands. He soon return the car to me but while returning the car to me he got into a incident with a police officer right in my driveway. The police officer roughly grabbed my grandson out my car although i did tell the officer the car wasn’t stolen it was for me and I let him use it. He threw him on the ground and left him with a bleeding nose after realizing “he had the wrong guy”.