After Miss. Alia taught the Black Panthers, Malcolm X and MLK all summer, Boys and Girls’ Club teens planned, organized and executed the first youth-led anti-violence march with 100 kids ages 5-13 years old in Newark history (Summer 2012)
About Alia Berry MSW, LSW
Alia Berry, as a licensed community-based social worker, has over 20 years experience working with ages 0 to 60 in a variety of settings from daycares to schools to group homes to correctional facilities.
Alia brings a macro level skill set with the community’s micro-level needs in mind as she continues to keep the pulse on the people through graduations and baby showers but also unfortunately at funerals and sentencing hearings...goal setting on the block and hugs at a red light; crisis interventionist, mentor and sidewalk case manager. Yet formalizing ideas/visions and organic processes, ensuring the effectiveness of programs and collecting data to help shape strategy is a strength of hers. Alia has a history in leadership roles where she built innovative, evidence-based programming, designed systems for sustainability and trained service providers for implementation and team building with a special focus on supporting staff wellness.
Her professional focus is in community-based violence intervention and prevention, serving individuals before, during and after incarceration through a variety of healing modalities which are trauma-informed and seek to address the mental health roots which manifest into violent behavior.
As an LSW, Alia is also dually certified in Elementary/Special Education, a certified School Social Worker, holds a Masters Degree which focused on Violence Against Women and Children with a concentration on Perpetrators and is a certified Grief & Loss Specialist.
As principal consultant of Seeds & Berries, Alia provides national capacity building support, training and local direct clinical services in schools, nonprofits and the government sector.
What People Are Saying
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I have had the pleasure of working with Alia Berry as a colleague and program partner for the past three years. Her unique approach to cultivating youth through academic, socio-emotional, and participatory action is—quite simply—unmatched.
Seeds & Berries partnered with SHE Wins Inc. and brought to our Summer Leadership Program a unique educational service-learning project, in which students studied, designed, and implemented a social action project. I personally witnessed my students transform their leadership, critical thinking, problem-solving, and project management skills as a result. It is this powerful fusion of passion, skill, and innovation that makes Seeds & Berries an invaluable asset to every organization that has the pleasure of working with them.
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— A’Dorian Murray Thomas, CEO of SHE Wins Inc.
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It goes without saying that Ms. Berry brings an element to the table and discussion that many within our field of grassroot work do not possess nor can be purchased via those Ivy League educations. She has impacted me professionally as a constant reminder that the work we do isn’t a 9 to 5, it is a lifestyle that requires heart, passion, and genuine love for people and disdain for inequity. Ms. Berry is a force whether on the worst block in Newark or in a boardroom, challenging the status quo. She not only has heart but has access to youth, the streets, our people and our communities that makes her work so much more meaningful and purposeful.
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— Natalie Ebolum Esq. MACRJ, Attorney and former colleague
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Ms. Berry has long been a champion of the underserved and designed her professional pathway to work with this group. In that vein, she has also looked to support those who battle with her to do the best job they can in the same charge, inclusive of teaching, nurturing and challenging growth in the team around her.
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— Darrell Price, Site Coach at Opportunity Youth Network
“All those who are a part of a community have a valuable contribution to make and should not be judged, feared or dismissed based on their actions stemming from the complex conditions of poverty. ”
Photos from the field
Supported and trained a cohort of young Leaders from SHEWins’ Summer Leadership Academy and Rutgers’ Abbott Leadership Institute to facilitate a Support Group in the Essex County Juvenile Detention Center with their incarcerated peers (Summer 2019)
‘Restorative Center’ hosted by the Opportunity Youth Network (OYN) in partnership with Newark Public Schools where Seeds & Berries worked as a Behaviorist to design this unprecedented therapeutic (5-25 day) suspension program. Space built by OYN’s certified construction students (2017-2018)
Facilitating professional development with administrators Pre-K-12 in Hillside School District on Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (2020)
Get in touch
Let’s talk about your strategic goals and discuss how Seeds & Berries can support you in getting your organization to the next level!