Funds

Michigan Veterans Foundation at risk of shutting down after funds cut


On Monday, a large portion of the nation’s workforce will receive a well-deserved day off in observance of the Labor Day holiday.

However, for Raeda Dabaja, Monday will be a normal work day in Detroit and she would not have it any other way because the daily labor performed by Dabaja and her team — 12 months a year — helps to make life better for heroes that made the ultimate sacrifice through service to their country.

“I never look at what I do as work because I enjoy what I’m doing,” said Dabaja, the CEO and executive director of the nonprofit Michigan Veterans Foundation (MVF), which operates the only shelter for veterans in Detroit at MVF’s Detroit Veteran Center inside a building affectionately called “The Pentagon,” 4626 Grand River, in the Woodbridge neighborhood. “I like to say that every day is an adventure.”   

Michigan Veterans Foundation, CEO, Raeda Dabaja, talks about how federal budget cuts have hurt the work they do for homeless veterans in Detroit on Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2023.

A native of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dabaja came to the United States in 1997 and after becoming a wife and mother, she had aspirations of a nursing career while attending the University of Detroit Mercy. After transferring to Davenport University, Dabaja turned her focus to the human service arena and planned to become a case manager. But the real career “adventure” for Dabaja would begin in 2009, when while pursuing an internship she was given a tour of the Michigan Veterans Foundation’s previous modest headquarters at 2770 Park Ave., which put her in touch with something that Dabaja thought she would never see in America. 



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