VEEMAH Mental Health Clinic expands to Brooklyn Center with $250,000 MEDA loan

VEEMAH Integrated Wellness and Consulting Services, a community mental

health clinic, has expanded from its first location in Crystal to Brooklyn Center

with the help of a $250,000 loan from the Metropolitan Economic Development

Association.

Veemah, which specializes in care for immigrants and people of color, was

launched by married couple Dr. Vivian Ballah-Swaray and Edwin Swaray, CEO

and chief financial officer, respectively. Inspired by their upbringing in Liberia

and surviving the country’s civil war as refugees in West Africa, the

couplelaunched their first clinic in 2018.

“[Our] experiences … cultivated [our] beliefs that the ability of the human spirit

to achieve a life of peace and serenity must begin in an environment that

nurtures and develops confidence and hope,” Edwin Swaray told the Business

Journal.

The clinic offers services such as mental health therapy, addiction education

and school-based therapy, a program working to improve student-to-school

counselor ratios in Minnesota. Since its opening, the Crystal location has grown

from a single service provider to a team of 15 and has greatly increased its range

of services. However, with a space of less than 1,500 square feet, there was not

enough room to expand further.

With the aid of a $250,000 loan from MEDA, the clinic was able to purchase a

2,400-square-foot building at 7070 Brooklyn Blvd. in Brooklyn Center. The new

space will allow Veemah to hire up to seven more therapists and provide

internship and training opportunities for master’s level psychology and social

work students.

Swaray said the choice of location was influenced by the United States' new

immigration policies. “As an organization that is culturally competent to work

with BIPOC clients, including immigrants and refugees, we wanted to be

strategically located in a community where our clients could easily reach us,

including walking into the clinic. We wanted to ensure our office provides a

calm, welcoming and safe environment for clients to heal.”

The Swarays plan to open doors on June 19, in commemoration of Juneteenth.

MEDA has launched over 500 businesses and assisted more than 30,000

underserved entrepreneurs and business throughout Minnesota since its

conception in 1971.