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Just because he is in Camden does not mean a child won’t come out being happy. Just because this is not the American dream or the American-looking family, that does not mean a child won’t come up all right. I want that image to change, because there’s some good stuff in Camden. It’s not all bad stuff. Kids do grow up happy in Camden. I did. I came out fine.
- Beatrize C.
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Try to work with what you have. So many people live beyond their means. You can't say, "I’m living in this house and it’s a piece of crap and nothing works." Try to empower yourself to fix something or to do something. There’s things that you can do yourself just to improve the quality of life around you.
- Crystal S
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When we spoke to Christina in October, her gas had been off for several months, which during the warmer months meant that they had no hot water and had to heat water on the stove to bathe the children. We don't know what her situation is like now that winter has come.
- Christina K
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That’s the raggedy stove. A family has to eat--here’s a family that wants to do better, wants to live in a good home that’s affordable. This stove was in my house when I moved here, nasty and dirty, just like that.
- Myra Y
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All you can do is pray and try and keep them off these streets because out here there is just so much going on right now. Just like we had a shooting the other day and they locked the school down. There are guns and stuff everywhere but now I think it’s getting bad because there are more drugs going on around here now. My son, the nineteen year-old, has already been caught in like two shootouts.
- Anisa D.
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What splits the projects from that side of Shawmut is Massachusetts Avenue. Once you cross Mass Ave, you’re no longer where the hood is, or where the Spanish or Black people are. Look at how nice that looks. Why are we so different if they’re only a block or two apart – they’re down the street. We’re separated by Massachusetts Avenue. What do you see that’s different? What can you point out? And now, you tell me why there is such a difference? This is Boston Housing.
- Tamara S.
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"She died on my 18th birthday I never celebrated my birthday after that. I missed six months of school when she passed away. I just sat in my room in a corner in the dark for six months. I wouldn’t eat. The only time I came out of my room was to go to the bathroom. And I rarely had to go to the bathroom ‘cause I wasn’t eating or drinking anything."
- Imani S
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She was tired after a long day at school and fell asleep in the car.
- Ernestine D.
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Tamika lives in one small bedroom with her two children. She rents the room from her mother by contributing cash and Food Stamps to the house.
- Tamika H
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My daughter has some difficulties reading, but she’s doing well. We waited like five years on a list to get her into a Newton school to go through a program. In the beginning, it was difficult, because other children there, they are White, and Tiana was a different color. And she always asked me, in the beginning, mommy, why am I a color? I said, Tiana, a different color does not mean we’re different. We’re the same. But, the children got used to her. Sometimes, she had play dates.
- Taina P.
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I'm just like that. I'm like Rocky. Rocky's fighting the fight like I'm fighting the fight with welfare, I guess.
- Tangela F
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Dornsife School of Public Health 
Drexel University 
