“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 6, 2018

Made it happen

My home situation was slightly better than average when compared to the typical ghetto home life.My mom didn’t always work, but she took temporary work when she could and I never went hungry.
Oct 18, 2018

Don’t Have Nothing

Gang Violence
Sep 19, 2018

Don’t do what they do

Growing up in lake worth beach Florida was ok at first till group of kids thought they were man enough to handle things. Going out stealing cars , robing people, hitting people and other things
Sep 18, 2018

Our community

Parents with higher incomes who are living in areas where neighborhoods are highly segregated have the financial ability to choose to live in those neighborhoods with higher-quality schools, more public resources, lower crime, and other characteristics that support the healthy development of their children.
Sep 14, 2018

My community (Story #57)

An important moment in my life that would help someone is you see when your community is slowly changing into segregation but can also be a good community too . You see what caused people to kill and abused each other. Living in a terrible neighborhood with violence can caused all danger to the community. My community is a place with dangerous people who do drugs but can also help each other out . The community I lived in is were you can say “ help a brother out “to “*gunshots”.
Sep 19, 2018

The community I live in

Together, our analyses can offer a portrait of who is poor and why, and explore the public policy implications; we can lift up voices and lives that are normally ignored or caricaturized by the media; we can include people living on the brink in high-profile events that explore poverty and in our advocacy efforts.