Knowledge Management

Knowledge management is the process of capturing, organizing, and storing information and experiences of individuals and groups within an organized context and making it available to others.

The Zozeza Institute provides knowledge services to the community in three distinct ways: Thought-Leadership Forums; Training Seminars; and Resource Library. Each of these service outlets allows the Institute to serve as a primary resource commited to engaging in understanding and supporting our target youth.

Thought-Leadership Forums

Before social and community activists and leaders can engage in practices that support real change, they mus clearly undersatnd::

• Historical and contemporary contexts of the problem; and
• Universal approaches, best practices, and lessons learned in this domain.

The Zoeza Institute is championing a "call to action" to practitioners, academics, and volunteers focussed on supporting disadvantaged foster care youth. To support this call and inspire efficient and productive practices, the Institute hosts a series of thought leadership seminars entitled, "Save Our Youth Community Forum: Focus on Solutions." The seminars focus on topics including, but not limited to:

• The Plight of African-American Boys
• Breaking the Pipeline from Schools to Prison
• Innovative Mentoring Techniques and Program Structures
• The Foster Care Dilemma
• The School/Community/Parent Partnership

Each seminar is professionally moderated and inlcudes a keynote speaker, panel of experts, and facilitated audience discussion. Click here to see a sample agenda of a past forum. To learn more about these seminars or find out when the event is scheduled, please contact us at admin@zoeza.org or 215.701.4616.

Training Seminars

Seminars are a useful forum in which participants can interact in a group setting to share their own ideas and experiences, as well as be exposed to new information and techniques relevant to increasing the quality of the mentoring experience. 

The Zoeza Institute follows Norman H. Cohen’s (author of A Step-By-Step Guide to Starting An Effective Mentoring Program) six guiding principles to help mentors and mentees remain focused on the essential aims of training in mentoring:

• Obtaining the knowledge and competencies necessary to meet their behavioral responsibilities as mentors and mentees in a sponsored program (in seminars and feedback sessions)
• Assessing their own specific interpersonal skills relevant to mentoring and identifying their own strengths and weaknesses as participants in achieving the goals of mentoring.
• Recognizing the possible impact of variables such as age, gender, race/ethnicity, authority (and philosophy of life/work, personality) on the dynamics of mentoring relationships.
• Exploring their own current cognitive and affective strategies as adult problem solvers in the workplace.
• Exploring the values as well as the problems associated with their own mentoring history (or similar experiences, if applicable) in past situations.
• Considering the possible style of collaborative relationship that appears feasible based on preliminary (and ongoing) views of their own and their partners’ “profiles”.

Please contact the Institute for scheduling information related to the following seminars:

• Case Studies of Foster Care: History, Policy, and Implications
• Understanding Minority Youth: Environment, Conditions, and Opportunities
• Mentoring 101: The Basics
• Guidelines for Establishing Effective Mentoring Relationships
• Unerstanding the Legal Implications of Mentoring
• Measuring Return on Investment in Short and Long-Term Mentoring Interventions

Resource Library

The Institute collects, develops, and maintains a variety of resource materials and serve as a portal for disseminating mission-specific information to targeted community members including:

• Books & Manuals

• DVD’s (Instructional, Documentary, and Thematic)

• Network Database

• Certification Templates

• Relationship Tools

• Procedural Templates

• Customized Curricula

• Data Index

To review, borrow, or access any materials, pleasethe Instite office by emailing admin@zoeza.org or calling 215.701.4616.