Published: May 28, 2025
By: Daymond Steer
OSSIPEE — The new Ossipee police station now has a comfortable place for victims to tell their stories to officers thanks to a grant from an organization in Texas called Project Beloved: The Molly Jane Mission.
Last year, selectmen bought a building at 43 Chickville Road to replace the Dore Street station. The police moved into the new station in February. The interview room is a small room with three comfortable chairs, art on the walls and supplies to make a crime victim feel as comfortable as possible.
Police Chief Donald Babbin said he was familiar with Project Beloved from his time as a police chief in Hardin, Mont. "This interview room is called a soft interview room. It was designed and furnished by Project Beloved, a company I found when I was in Montana that does this for victims of crimes to come and have a nice, safe place, a quiet place, a comfortable place that would make them feel a little bit better," said Babbin. "Everything was sent here to the PD for nothing. They supplied everything. We just had to put everything together. They even sent us light bulbs for the lamp."
Babbin said he and Lt. Rob Ripley put the room together, by painting the walls, moving the furniture and hanging the art. Also provided with the interview room were blankets, weighted blankets, tissues and stress balls.
Project Beloved, based in Fort Worth Texas, was founded by Tracy Matheson whose daughter, Molly, 22, was raped and murdered in 2017. Ossipee's soft interview room is the 139th room that Project Beloved has funded.
"Trauma-informed care (TIC) considers and understands the body's biological and neurological response to trauma. Evidence-based practices call for a trauma-informed approach to reports of rape and sexual assault, and a soft interview room is considered an integral component of TIC," states Project Beloved on its website. "Creating a space that is comfortable rather than stark allows the participant to feel physically and emotionally safe and can have a significant impact on the interview process. Soft interview rooms can also be useful when interviewing those suspected of committing crimes as well."
In an email to the Sun, Matheson said most soft interview rooms cost about $2,500.
"We receive donations from individuals mostly … some larger organizations, grants, foundations also support us," said Matheson. "But the vast majority of our funding is from regular folks who believe in the work we are doing."