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”).
From experience coming from New York to here, you have more help up there. It’s harder to find resources down here. I was in a bad relationship last year that left me homeless. There are no shelters around here. Now I am better but at the time I had no where to go. I saw a guy walking out of an empty building and was wondering what he was doing in there. People were sleeping in empty buildings. I’ve had a lot of good experiences too. A lot of mission teams came and helped people fix up their houses and that’s nice to see. The First Methodist Church makes you feel really welcomed and help a lot. Pahokee isn’t that bad it just needs some work. Only a few people show up to the town meetings and obviously nothing is going to get done if no one is telling them what we need.
More and more Americans who struggle to get by are living in these marginalized, disinvested communities where jobs and educational opportunities are scarce, and an increasingly militarized police force is the primary contact residents have with government.
I moved here from Haiti with my grandmother. I was kicked out at 16. Luckily I had friend to help me with money and a job.
The most important moment in my life (I was born and raised in Belle Glade). I lost my mom in 96 by of Belle Glade, an my son and nephew lost to gun violence a few years ago. After all of that, I am still standing, I might stumble, God has carried me. He is always there. Hypertension and diabetes and heart problems went through my family, and God has been there for us. My mom lived 7 years with kidney failure with NO medication. She didn’t suffer when she died. We took care of her and my husband when they were sick. We all take care of each other. That’s a family tradition.
The most important moment in my life were having my children. The hospital is now closed and it has really effected our community. We now have to drive to Belle Glade for healthcare. I came here in November 1970, married here in 1974. The roads on the way to my house have been needing fixing for years and nothing has been done. All the other roads have been fixed but they don’t care about ours in East Lake Village. I like Pahokee, its a nice quiet neighborhood. It’s not all that hustling and bustling like a big city.