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.”
There is no better place to live than Belle Glade
I have been here since 1991 and I like living in the glades because everything is so close and I know where to go if I have a problem and my neighbors i can interact with. My brother and I were sick and all the people in the glades were always there to care for me, to take me to the hospital, and to take care of us. If it weren’t for the people of glades we wouldn’t be alive. Belle glade is a perfect place for me to live because without an education I can work in the fields…
Ocean life-Rickia
I have been following oceans and water since I could remember. I now live on the ocean where I can wake up to the sound of the water everyday. When I was a child my father introduced me to this life because he was in the military and traveled and moved a lot. When I had my family I choose to settle in a small community close to the ocean.
Mlk March-Rickia
I can remember the neighborhood coming together to watch the Mlk March and all my friends came over with they grandma because back then everyone couldn’t afford a tv
My Grandmother’s Death
I like to think of my neighborhood as a union. When my grandmother died my whole neighborhood prayed for my family. For her funeral they collectively put money together to fund her funeral. It was the most generous thing I have ever seen. They are the most caring people.
B-out day
B-out day, where there was a local football player who threw a event for the community there were bounce houses food and live music all across from the set
Big world
Important moment in my life is when I got accepted into college. My main goal was to get away from boynton. My grandparents always told me to go out and see the world.
WE love it
Everybody is friendly
True love
Growing up when I was young I remember the first time I met her she was sweet when I first moved to the neighborhood we played games Together,laugh together and grew stronger as our connection made a connect. When I first met Ruby
La familia
Every Christmas is a good Christmas in Boynton. Later in the evening everybody in the neighborhood is dressed up and goes to the Hester center. The kids love going the get to show off what they got an have a good time. The good thing about this is nobody gets upset because if one person I the community got everybody does. We are a family.
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.
Care
When my dad earned dad earned his citizenship we were very happy and when we came home everyone else was happy as well we could tell because they threw him a little get together and we thought that was pretty nice that they cared.
It’s life
My race has always given me a problem. Police always tend to look me up and down. Stop me in stores and ask questions. No specific moment but jut life in general.
Sports (Story #504)
Important moments in my life was sports. Growing up around here I had to be into something so I didn’t get caught in the street life. My parents didn’t want me to In up in jail.
New beginning- Kene
Well I’m originally from Columbia, came over when I was 8 years old, I didn’t know anybody, didn’t know English. It’s important to know English, and finding mindful resources. Also I’ve delivered toys to unfortunate families to give them toys. Gave homeless people clothes around winter to stay warm.
Change (Story #580)
Living through so many hurricanes.
The hoa blues
The former president of our home owners association
Value -Rickia
I mean pretty much what my sister said our family was very loving we had everything we needed when we were struggling we didn’t even notice my family with a great family and we stuck together through everything we kept our business out of the streets
Community man-Rickia
I pride myself on being the ladies’ man. I love the attention I got from the neighborhood women but not the m
Give god the glory-billy penn
Living in this neighborhood is not about the drugs and the alcohol I was born in 1947 in Delray Beach hoping kids don’t follow in my foot steps if I got a problem I don’t do drugs but around people that do good and bad in my childhood never went to school
My community (Story #370)
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. But for two years, Americans have been expressing confusion as one neighborhood after another from one city to another
Get some action going in Pahokee, FL!
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…
Safety first (Story #481)
I remember one night I was at home. Next thing you know I hear gunshots. I thought nothing of it until I went to watch the news the next day and seen somebody was shot and killed by my house. It worried me about my safety.
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.
Changing
Anybody that know my family, know we come from a very religious family. I didn’t understand any of it until I was shot and almost killed by my best friend over a fight about money. We were both living illegally so the police didn’t take us seriously. We both had been in and out of jail but when I almost died I found God for myself, now I live a good life
The Take
Took over my grandmothers house
The Run
Was brought down from New Jersey with my mother
Living in a community like mines
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.
Violence (Story #614)
Seeing the police take my father way for life
The Day my brother was shot
Living in my neighborhood is not all bad you just have to watch who you hang out with. My brother was shot for trying to separate two friend from fighting.But it’s not just my neighborhood young kids are getting shot and kill every day and everywhere we just have to pay attention and try our best to make a difference
Angels Surrounding me
They were arguing about a girl. He left and I was standing there talking to one of the guys. Someone came from behind and hit my with a baseball bat. I had seizures and was foaming from the mouth. I was in a coma for 9months and 2 weeks. Then I woke up and stayed in the hospital for another month in Jackson Memorial. I couldn’t play high school football after that.
Things was simple
When I was little times were easy. Wasn’t much crime and this was claim. But these days these kids are around here killing each other.
The New house !
When my dad told us that we were buying house . It was a great moment for us , because we wanted a bigger room for each of us . We had been sharing the same room between 3 kids. We were super excited when we found out we wouldn’t be sharing rooms anymore. We were happy to see that we had a big yard . But we were sad to leave our old house and neighborhood we lived in. We were excited though to move.
Better themselves
Everyday I see some type of dealing in front of my house. When I say dealing I mean drug dealings. I just always brush it off because it’s not affecting me. I just wish they would find a real job and better themselves.
Violence (Story #609)
Gun violence
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.
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.
The neighborhood of renters
I wouldn’t want people to live in my neighborhood because you have many renters in the neighborhood who don’t take care of their things. When i was driving home from work i realized that there was somebody breaking into a car as if it was their own. The neighborhood is a mess i wouldn’t allow the worst child to stay there kids fighting kids left and right , parents arguing, people dying i wouldn’t wish for my biggest enemy to stay here.
Living in my community
Neighborhoods with poor quality housing, few resources, and unsafe conditions impose stress, which can lead to depression. The stress imposed by adverse neighborhoods increases depression above and beyond the effects of the individual’s own personal stressors, such as poverty and negative events within the family or work-place.
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.
The day i brought my neighborhood together-Nelcael Joseph
The most important time in my life was when i was able to bring my family together along with my whole community not only was it done by someone in my community but by a female me myself France Haven was able to set up a family fun day within my neighborhood to bring everyone together.
Good of bad
Growing up in Boynton Beach my family and i were close he had a nice relationship because my grandma would never allow anything else we stuck together and it was all love. We lived on “the hill” and there was a lot going on fighting. Violence. But there was also good times.
Ms.T my Second Mother
When my mother kicked me out of the house I spent nights sleeping in a park while trying to finish high school. I had no bed, no shower,and no food.I went back to my old neighborhood and knocked on the door of Ms.T she was a well known lady kind of like the mother of my neighborhood.All I wanted was something to eat. But Ms.T didn’t just give me a meal. She took me into her home, where he had warm food and a roof over his head she treated me like her very own son. She also brought…
Don’t do things
Growing up in my neighbor hood was bad because it was guns bullets on the floor every morning I was in this small part of town i stayed on cherry hill (that’s what they call the street) it was bad. My mom got tired of it. I wouldn’t want kids doing things they not supposed to be doing
Segregation
An important moment in my life is when segregation is now continuing again in our community.Many people don’t see how badly people treat us . We are equal and have the rights as everyone else . Growing up here in the 1940s and 1950s, couldn’t visit the public library near My house, but instead had to travel to the “colored” library in the historically black room I attended a school for black children, where we received second-hand books, and where the school day was half the length of that of white schools, because the black school had too many children…
For no reason
I used to be a police back in my day. Things certainly have changed. I was walking outside of my house and seen police interrogating these young men. I did not like what I saw. There were not respectful and actually had no reason to be doing it.
The Neighborhood
Growing up as a kid me and my neighborhood we’re one. All the kids knew each other we knew each-other parents and the neighborhood was like one big family.Growing my single mother would struggle financially.But we always ate and had a roof over our heads because our neighbors would help my mother. Our neighbors would help no matter the issue or problem we considered ourselves a family.
Important moment interview
Live in Jefferson manor and grand parents owned store in Delray. 4th generation and moved into grandparents old home. Loss job recently but thank God was able to keep the house, worked and traveled a lot professionally.
Look outs
I started earlyOne of the most important moments in my life was when I met the coach of Carver High Football team. He saw me playing in the streets with my friend and told me I have a talent. Everyday he would pick me and my friends up and take us to football practice and take us home at night Because my parents couldn’t drive and most parents in the neighborhood did not have cars. He remained my coach all the way through high school and help me get a scholarship to go to college. That where I’m from, a…
Support (Story #625)
Bunch of positive mentors
Things get better
I was born in a housing project.That’s where I lived with my family until I was 9.But life didn’t get better when we moved.In fact, we moved to a worse public housing project.I stayed there until I was 18, which is when I left for college. Since then, I’ve only been back three times and none in the last decade.
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