“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”).


Oct 25, 2018

Rip daddy

Important moment in my life was losing my father. When he left my life I had to survive in this neighborhood alone.its a pretty ruff neighborhood I needed my dad for certain things.
Sep 15, 2018

My neighborhood (Story #550)

An important moment in my life is when you aren’t feeling safe in your own neighborhood.you can see yourself being scared to come outside because of the killing and drugs people are doing in my neighborhood.people just watch as others use it and watch them ruin their life .
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 community (Story #390)

There were about 643,000 sheltered and unsheltered homeless people nationwide in January 2009. Almost two-thirds stayed in an emergency shelter or transitional housing program and the other third were living on the street, in an abandoned building, or another place not meant for human habitation.
Sep 14, 2018

My community (Story #315)

Living in my community is when you see two people fighting and another person is just recording it or “hyping” it up .People in this community don’t see things until they know when to stop.people use phones to control their life instead of books .back than when slavery was still happening,they would try to run away to learn how to read .
Mar 4, 2019

Changes from the past to present

From the past to right now the family values have changed. Back then the community raised us. People used to watch the kids. Athletics have decreased.