Barry started work as a community development worker in 1978 and has mainly worked in the Brighton & Hove and south east of England area, including estates in Shoreditch, Woolwich, Brixton and Deptford. He is a qualified Community & Youth Worker and Social Worker. In 1984 he started working in the Hangleton area of Hove, building The Hangleton & Knoll Project to become an award winning exemplar of community development and one of the first community led regeneration schemes in the country.

Barry is a published author and was previously Visiting Lecturer in Community Development at both Sussex and Brighton Universities. He has developed, and tutors on, the Trust's own WICO course. He worked as a volunteer to help set up The Trust for Developing Communities from 1999 and was subsequently appointed Chief Executive in 2002.