by Olivia Young
Bronx-native Alam Gonzalez, a social worker and violence prevention activist who recently moved to Kingsbridge, is set on securing a space in the neighborhood to keep building on his work.
Gonzalez has led workshops for the past several years that focus on strengthening men’s leadership and conflict resolution skills through talking. He also aims to foster a space for those impacted by violence — whether in prison, on the streets or at home — to heal.
As a teenager growing up in the borough, Gonzalez described a youth exposed to violence and instability. Without support to ground him, he lost direction, and was in a juvenile detention center from ages 16 to 17.
The experience became a turning point for the now 33 year old.
“When I made those choices, something sparked in me that this is not who I am,” Gonzalez said. “My environment does not dictate who I am, and I wanted to make a change … I got inspired to be something, to become somebody.”
He went back to school for his GED diploma, then for an associate degree at CUNY Bronx Community College, where he met community activist Nayma Silver-Matos, who was a speaker at the time. Silver-Matos had already founded a girl’s leadership program called Project Beauty Experience, and helped propel Gonzalez’s vision forward.
“My voice does have power,” Gonzalez recalls realizing. “My words do have meaning. They do hold weight. What can I do with that power? Whose life can I change?”
He went on to obtain a bachelor’s and a master’s degree — one at Lehman College, the other at Yeshiva University — in social work. By 2023, he had founded AJG Therapeutics, an organization aimed at emotionally supporting Bronx men.
“I saw that there was a need,” Gonzalez said. “I didn’t have that advocate to guide me when I was coming up … somebody to really address the skills I needed to learn — conflict resolution, anger management, how to de-escalate, how to properly communicate my emotions, how to understand the power of walking away [under] peer pressure — What if I could teach these things?”
In 2024, the two collaborated on a workshop at the New York City Housing Authority Dyckman Houses. Silver-Matos led crafts and activities aimed at building confidence among young girls, while Gonzalez spoke with adults about how to develop trust with kids, and identify the signs of when their behavior could become dangerous.
“When you don’t have that cohesiveness internally in the family, then we seek family outside,” Silver-Matos explained. “Sometimes kids seek family out in the streets.”
Within his own workshops, Gonzalez said he noticed higher crime rates in households without a present father — something he was personally shaped by — and sought to fill that gap.
He talks with men on how to understand both their own feelings and those of their family members, asking questions like “How do you support your wife during postpartum depression?” and “How do you communicate what you really feel with your partner and your children when you’re upset?”
At its core, Gonzalez uses his knowledge of behavioral therapy to target the root of an issue behind men’s behaviors, and point to resources that can help move them forward.
The activist got married less than a year ago, and settled down in Kingsbridge a few months ago with his wife, daughter, and 9-month-old baby boy. In December, he attended a Community Board 8 meeting in hopes of finding a place to hold his workshops.
He said the goal is to take what he has done in the Bronx and bring it to Kingsbridge, building a community for men to “come, open up and share the struggles that we deal with, and come up with ways to address those issues.”
By press time, Gonzalez said he was feeling cautiously optimistic it would come to fruition.