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Meet Edmonia Doe of Zoe Safe House

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Edmonia Doe.

Edmonia, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
Unintentionally, my venture to becoming a nonprofit founder and CEO began before I was old enough to understand what service meant. I have always had a drive for helping others dating back as far as I could remember. Service was installed in me at an early age. It was a special trait that was passed down by my grandmother. I was born in the middle of a civil war in Monrovia, Liberia that lasted 14 years. Popular for child soldiers this war left many children orphaned, homeless, and without an option to the atrocities that they were forced to commit. My grandmother took in as many of those orphaned and homeless children as she could in our village of Duport road. Until this day, those children have grown to be my many aunts and my uncles. The safe haven that my grandmother Zoe provided during that time saved many people from despair. Though she had no idea, Zoe Safe House began with her in Monrovia, Liberia those many years ago.

Zoe Safe House is a 501c3 organization that was officially founded in 2015. I spent a year volunteering and networking in an attempt to further my understanding of the rise in teenage homeless in Atlanta. Not only did I want to understand this phenomenon, but I wanted to find a solution. Thinking back to the experience of my grandmother “Zoe”, this nonprofit was developed in her honor and to mirror her diligence to her community. As a clinical mental health therapist, I use what I have learned to develop a tested and refined curriculum that aims to help our youth reach their fullest potential by building healthy relationships, making positive decisions and contributing to societal change. I realized that while many students are learning the basics in school, they are living in generational poverty at home without exposure to even the beauty that exists in their back yard. The curriculum that was developed specifically for Zoe Safe House is based on the goal of ending the cycle of poverty and exposing our participants to the endless opportunities that await them.

Today, we continue to expand our company, spread our message, and build partnerships with other nonprofits, local universities, community leaders, and YOU! We can not do what we do without the help and commitment of our Atlanta community.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
“Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty” – Theodore Roosevelt

Starting anything as an entrepreneur is never easy. Even now, my team and I continue to hit roadblocks along the way. However, we are grateful for every barrier and every trial that we face while running this organization. The struggles we face continues to educate us on the field and further our understanding of how we can improve what we do.

I think that the most challenging struggle that we have faced thus far is the lack of men that volunteer as mentors. We recruit mentors from nearby universities and our local communities. Since our founding, we have had trouble with assigning our young men with men whom they can identify with. The lack of male volunteers has been disheartening because our young boys are in desperate need of a male role model; especially as many of them are being raised in a single parent home consisting of only their mother. We need more of our men to volunteer.

The other challenge that we faced when starting was getting grants to pay for trips, supplies, etc. Fortunately, through networking and building communal relationships, we have been able to secure fundraising opportunities and are actively working on acquiring monetary grants to further our mission.

Zoe Safe House – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
The purpose of Zoe Safe House, Inc. is to serve as a mentorship development organization to inner-city youth (both boys and girls) between the ages of 8-18 in the Atlanta metropolitan area. As an umbrella organization, we create programs and implement them into the school system teaching social and emotional learning within a series of fun, and interactive modules. Our modules have been developed to empower our youth to be self-sufficient, career-focused, and COURAGEOUS! These modules set us apart because they have been researched and proven to be impactful in changing the lives of each participant in our program.

Our mission is to provide assistance in the form of coaching, mentorship, and community service to urban youth equipping them with the resource and outlets that can help develop them into successful adults. Zoe Safe House is currently an approved partner of Atlanta Public Schools and we are now expanding to Dekalb Public Schools. We are located in three schools in the area and are excited about the growth that we see coming forth in the near future. We have solidified partnerships with Chick-fil-a operators in the area to ensure that all of our participants are eating when they are with us. In addition to Chick-fil-a, we have secured partnerships with google nonprofits, Kennesaw State University, and Georgia State University. Our mentors are recruited from these nearby universities and some work with our organization as an internship site given their academic major.

As we continue to embed ourselves in our Atlanta community through service, we are proud of the different ways that we expose our participants to the world that awaits them. Through a series of partnerships with other nonprofits, our participants are always looking forward to our annual events; A day in the life of a College student, Who wants to be an entrepreneur, International attendance at the “Atlanta Black College Expo”, and many more.

What is “success” or “successful” for you?
I tend to view success incrementally. Success to me is based on not only my work but the work of my team as we work together towards the growth of Zoe Safe House. Success to me is being considerate of not only my goals but being able to attribute to the goals of each individual on our team and the team goal as a whole.

As someone who is invigorated by new, and complex challenges, I never want to find myself in a situation where I feel like there is nothing left to learn or achieve. If over the course of my time serving, I can leave work each evening satisfied that I’ve learned a new way to help these kids then this counts as success to me.

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