“We Are Here” Story Collection

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.” Explore 50 responses below, selected at random. Which stories capture your attention? (Some responses were transcribed by youth volunteers.) To learn more about the storyteller and how they interpreted their response, click “Zoom In.”

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.
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Love. Your mom

Well growing up was pretty hard for me my mom didn’t always have the bills paid on time didn’t always Keep a house but. One I got really tired of it and started doing things I regret instead of waiting for her to get right and me getting a job
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Sadness

Seeing kids in a wheelchair while young.
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The right thing

When I was 16 I saw someone get killed. After that I knew the neighborhood wasn’t safe. I told myself that when I get older I’m going to do the right thing.
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Living

Well I’m Greg light and growing up in my neighborhood was ok. I wasn’t rich but i wasn’t poor there was always food on the table and i always had clothes. there were people who had nothing and there were people who had more. Ofc there was fights and violence but that’s in every hood.
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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 .
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Never stop searching for answers

I don’t know if this has anything to do with my neighborhood but when I was young I had a lot of questions and not enough answers. I wanted to know why this group of people got so much, when I had so little. Why they could go to college and I couldn’t. I didn’t except what people told me and I searched for answers myself. I ended up with a scholarship to college and different outlook on life
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Humble Servant

Bring able to come back and give back to the community. Doing stuff for those who gave to me as a kid.
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Love your moms

Moving out my mom house was important to me.Things can get hard around Boynton so I had to make a way. Even though I moved out my mom still had to help me.
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Y community

Thirty-five percent of participants stopped important activities after their events, with personal illnesses having this effect most frequently. In addition to these negative consequences, participants reported positive consequences of their stressful events for their lives.
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Born and raised in Delray Beach- Kene

Giving birth to my children. I was born and raised in Delray so it was nice to have all my family and friends present. And something I’m looking forward to oneday, is purchasing my own house in Delray for my family.
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Take the road

Growing up as a kid brings you joy and happiness Remembering the past makes you smile. I was always a good child. Listen choose the good never the bad
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Clean up the streets

What it’s like living in my neighborhood.Well you have 10th ave where the young boys sell drugs and the park where we have our little league football. Things bad around here no structure at all. Hopefully we can come together one day and clean up the streets .
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Haiti Family

I grew up projects in belle glade the neighborhood was very nice. They will help out anytime if you need it, friends will help the best way they can. And what I love most about belle glade is they would cook food for anyone that is starving. My part of town in belle glade was very helpful its like having a family.
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Appreciation

Learning from the people around you.I was raised in up state New York in a strict Catholic surroundings. It was not until I moved to Boynton Beach that I got to experience and appreciate life and what it had to offer.
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Not always bad

One day was my nephews football game at Boynton high. We went out to support him. As we were there we noticed how much the community was bonding. Just at a football game you can tell that Boynton is not a bad place.
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Make something out of it

Living around here isn’t really as bad as people make it seem. Yes there’s drugs and murders and bad things going on but if you are focused on a goal u should have a good outcome. Many people make it out the hood that’s why I push my kids to be something in life.
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The Church

I have 4 kids and a while ago I was being evicted from my house. I had been laid off and just started a temporary job and I just wasn’t making enough to pay all the bills. I was ashamed with my situation but spoke to my pastor and prayed about it. My church donated money to me and help me keep my house. Now I have a new good paying job and a brand new family my church.
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Don’t judge a book by its cover

A very secluded family lived across the street from me my entire childhood and we barely spoke or interacted. I left for college and after returned to live with my parents. I notice one day a very nerdy looking young lady coming back and forth and decided to approach her. Well, she ended up being the love of my life and we are still together. I’m glad I fell in love with her and not her appearance.
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Sports (Story #181)

Playing sports was a important moment in my life.It kept me off the streets and focused on something. Most of my friends was in the streets and now they dead or in jail .
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Nurse -Devonte white

Important moment in my life was going through nursing school. I always wanted to be a nurse and i made it into reality
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The Field

Once my youth football team no field to play on. My coach tried everything to raise money and get one. He reached out to the Mayor. The mayor helped and got us one.
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Work for it

Buying my first house was a important moment in my life. Everything I got I had to work for it.nobody won’t give you anything around here.
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Growing Up Without Parents

Losing a mother and being raised by an aunt. This ensured that I had to over come obstacles and pave a way for myself and siblings to get through life.
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Sports (Story #452)

Getting into sports was important in my life. It’s wasn’t that many options for me because I didn’t want to be a doctor or anything. So I played sports to keep me off the streets.
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A helping hand

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.
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Our future

I remember driving down over by galaxy elementary one night. I don’t know what was going on but I seen at least 100 teens outside and police cars. The police had dogs out and big guns. See teens these days for some reason are prone to getting into trouble. Hopefully nobody that night got hurt. But I want better for our future generation.
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Back then

Living in my neighborhood things have changed alot. I remember when it was ok to just sit outside your house,no u have to worry about these kids killing each other.
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Helpless

Once I seen somebody fall out. many walked by but it was one group that stopped to help.
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The support is real

There was a bad car accident in Boynton were the driver died. People were so supportive of the family of the person who passed. My community is so nice.
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Living life

Although the impact of living in high-poverty neighborhoods has been well documented, it’s hard to fully explain the toll it takes on a person’s body and soul. Frustration over high prices, high bills, and high unemployment rates is worsened by the bane of many a poor community—the local drug economy. Dealing drugs was the neighborhood summer job program. And for many young neighbors who were expelled from school (because administrators are more likely to punish black students than provide more holistic help), the drug trade was less an alternative than an inevitability.
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Protection-Rickia

See me i was the man of the house my father wasn’t there he was a coward and we are from boynton but we moved to the other side this was a little bit less than what i had expected and i would do things a man supposed to do in the house to make sure my mom and my sisters were ok and in around the 90s i started selling drugs i had my own house by this time but not to far from my mom and sisters. I remember her calling me late at night saying they were…
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Choose the ine

Growing up where I was coming from was a whole different State of Florida. I was coming up and Alabama than moved down here to delray beach Florida cause my aunt. Stayed down here. I met tons of Friends who Made me get in trouble from time to time it wasn’t all find and games. But choose right. People you hang with
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Don’t become

Growing was odd for me I was thinking that if I do this I’ll become better but me doing it didn’t make me come better it made me. A threat to the system now I can’t get the job I want all because I seen the. Grown ups doing things
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Living in proverty

Most Americans will spend at least one year below the poverty line at some point between ages 25 and 75.Poverty rates are persistently higher in rural and inner city parts of the country as compared to suburban areas.Estimates of the number of Americans living in poverty are nuanced. One organization estimated that in 2015, 13.5% of Americans (43.1 million) lived in poverty
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Love and cherish

I have a great neighborhood. Recently when I lost my wife everyone came together and took care of me for months. I had been married for 52 years and they knew how important she is to me.
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Living in Belle Glade

This is a very diverse community. A lot of different nationalities. When I came here, I was raised in a community in South Carolina where there wasn’t such a diversity. When I came here, I saw how … a lot of times in a place like this you have to live it to understand it. It’s a community where people get along but I don’t think people are as close as they should be because of their upbringing. It’s very complicated. My brother drove 18 wheelers, filled vegetables from the field and brought them to the plants. I would ride…
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Change for the better (Story #457)

An important moment in my life is when my son graduated. He used to always be in trouble and up to no good. By him graduated it shows that people can change and that Boynton is not all bad.
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Let’s make a change

Growing up in palm beach was terrible my mother didn’t like it one bit ! Palm beach was all sorts of bars young teens having babies,gang bangers shooting every night , Palm beach was horrible even for the children.
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Living in Quiet Waters

Real nice. People are pretty nice, staff are nice. High school champions (Glades Central). Pretty comfortable. Moved here 10 years ago, still about the same. One of the best places in belle glade to live. Nice people come to visit.
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Good community (Story #249)

An important moment in my life is when my mom died. Everyone in the community came together to help me and my family out. People actually are good around here for the most part.
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City of Delray

Well growing up in Delray isn’t the same how it is today less violence how it was back in my day 1960 street gangs , killings , drug debate
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Come and See For Yourself

I was born in Everglade Experimentation station, 3 mi east of bell glade. Born in 1944. Mom was babysitter. Being in bell glades is what you make out of it. Went to school here. Need to be cautious and need to remember god is in control, especially at this time of year. With the weather. Went to school for childhood development. We have situations here, but they are like a family. We have situations , but what family doesn’t. I am 74, but this is the greatest places to live. Only left for 15 years, when she went to Pompano…
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