[wsls.com]National Crime Victims’ Rights Week brings light to Soft Interview Room in Lynchburg

A way to make victims feel safe — that’s the goal of the new Soft Interview Room for the Lynchburg Victim Witness Program.

[newschannel10.com]Friona designs ‘soft interview room’ to help assault survivors

A first for the Panhandle, the City of Friona is implementing a ‘soft interview room’ for survivors of sexual assault.

“Victims sitting across a table from someone in law enforcement or backed into a corner where it’s just plain and cold and uncomfortable, so let’s take these spaces and make them warm and inviting and comfortable,” said Tracy Matheson, president and founder of Project Beloved.

[www.mystateline.com]Freeport Police redesign interview room to be more welcoming to trauma survivors

ROCKFORD, Ill. (WTVO) — Freeport Police have given one of its interview rooms a makeover to accommodate survivors of violence.

The new “soft interview” room features a “trauma-informed” design after being repainted and carpeted and given new furnishings to make the room more comfortable.

[wrex.com]New Freeport Police interview room aims to help domestic violence victims

FREEPORT — The Freeport Police Department is showcasing a new “soft” design to it's interview room, based on research that shows Trauma Informed Care and victim-centered approaches are the best practices when interviewing victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.

[nbc12.com]New ‘soft interview rooms’ to help sexual assault victims

HENRICO, Va. (WWBT) - With comfortable chairs, blankets, chosen artwork and essential oils, the new ‘soft interview room” is now open at Henrico Police Headquarters.

Henrico Police Division Captain Lauren Nobles says the design helps make victims more comfortable while sharing details about a traumatic event with police as they investigate a case.

“Having anything that can be the most remote, more inviting is the key, is going to what allows us in law enforcement to help the victim,” Nobles said.

Rooms like this are being installed across the country, and Tracy Matheson is the leader behind these efforts.

[youtube.com]Webinar: Ready to Build a New Soft Interview Room. Learn How from the Experts!

Join Tracy Matheson, founder of Project Beloved and Claude Turcotte, CEO of MaestroVision in this educational webinar on how to build a trauma-informed soft interview room at your organization with the right technology. PLUS get a live tour of Minot Police Department's soft interview room.

[KUER.org]To ease victim’s trauma, the U’s new police station has a soft interview room

In the University of Utah’s recently unveiled police station, you’ll find something new. The facility includes a “soft interview room” — a space meant to help sexual assault victims feel more comfortable reporting crimes.

The room looks like a therapist’s office, or maybe even a spa. Warm lamps illuminate teal and gray couches, draped with weighted blankets. A diffuser emits a washed out green glow on the soft, felt walls.

A painting hangs on the emerald green back wall. “A forest with purple flowers and the sun coming through on the other side of the trees, sort of relating hope through the art,” said Hilary White, the crime victim advocate coordinator for the University of Utah Police.

Until now, everyone — suspects and victims — were interviewed in the same cold, sterile room.

[brproud.com]LSU joins non-profit to change treatment of sexual assault survivors

BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) ––– College campuses across the country are no strangers to sexual assault cases, but how and where police speak to survivors greatly impacts the quality of investigations.

Thirteen percent of all college students experience some form of sexual assault, but only about thirty-one percent report an assault to the police. But reporting means police often have to interview the survivor to get the assailant off the streets.

After suffering a tragic loss, Matheson decided more needed to be done to protect survivors. “Project Beloved is a nonprofit that I founded in the aftermath of what I would describe as a parent’s worst nightmare. My daughter, Molly Jane, was raped and murdered April 10th, 2017,” Matheson explained.

[star-telegram.com]First rapist arrested under Molly Jane’s Law pleads guilty to Arlington sexual assault

A 26-year-old man pleaded guilty to aggravated sexual assault Wednesday and was sentenced to 25 years in prison, the Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office said in a news release. Jessie DeWayne Ray was accused of sexually assaulting a woman at gunpoint in an Arlington park in 2019. Ray recorded the assault on his iPhone and the video was discovered in May 2020 when Tyler police arrested him during a narcotics investigation. When Tyler police entered information from the video into an FBI database known as the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program, they found it was a match for the then-unsolved Arlington case.

[lsu.edu]LSU POLICE DEPARTMENT FIRST IN THE SEC TO IMPLEMENT “SOFT INTERVIEW ROOM”

The LSU Police Department is the first in the SEC to implement a Project Beloved “soft interview room” for victims of trauma or sexual violence. The new room features comfortable lighting, furniture, weighted blankets and items that are intended to help survivors talk to police about what happened.

[abcactionnews.com]One mom’s mission to support sexual assault victims during investigations

Molly was more than a daughter to Tracy Matheson. The two were more like best friends.

“It’s like she’s my right hand. I could count on her for anything,” Matheson recalled.

Matheson remembers Molly’s humor and kindness and how she believed in the good in people. But it was evil that took her daughter’s life. At 22, Molly was assaulted and killed by a man who was accused of prior attacks and even left DNA evidence behind.

[mydakotan.com]Helping Victims of Assault in Minot

MINOT – The Minot Police Department recently changed the structure of its interview rooms for sexual assault victims, to make it more comfortable for the victims being interviewed.

Kristin Guerton, detective in the investigations division for the Minot PD, said she heard of an organization called Project Beloved: The Molly Jane Mission at a conference she attended in 2019.

Tracy Matheson of Fort Worth, Texas, and founder of Project Beloved, said the non-profit does several methods of outreach including what she calls the Beloved Bundles.

[kxnet.com]Soft room at Minot PD aims to make survivors feel safe

MINOT, N.D. (KXNET) — According to RAINN, every 68 seconds, someone in the United States is sexually assaulted.

Project Beloved aims to educate people about sexual assault and advocate for survivors.

One of their larger initiatives is partnering with law enforcement agencies to make what they call, “soft interview rooms.”

[valawyersweekly.com]New interview room designed to empower survivors

CHARLOTTESVILLE (AP) Carefully chosen artwork, comfortable chairs, blankets and essential oils help ease harsh memories.

A new ‘soft interview room’ at the Charlottesville Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office is designed to make a more comfortable place for victims to recall and discuss the traumatic events they’ve been through as prosecutors and police prepare criminal court cases.

The Charlottesville room is the most recent of 48 created and installed across the country by Project Beloved, a Texas-based nonprofit that advocates, educates and collaborates with criminal justice officials to help victims, especially sexual assault survivors, tell their stories.

[dailyprogress.com]Opinion/Editorial: Helping others is often the best way through loss

Anyone who has suffered the horrific loss of a loved one know how hard it is to deal with the alchemy of emotions. Anger competes with despair to fuel a sense of futility. The suffering of the person who died crushes the spirit. The permanence of death haunts the future.

[dailyprogress.com] A soft room for hard conversations: New interview room designed to empower survivors

A new ‘soft interview room’ at the Charlottesville Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office is designed to make a more comfortable place for victims to recall and discuss the traumatic events they’ve been through as prosecutors and police prepare criminal court cases.

[WDBJ7.com] Soft interview room opened at Virginia Military Institute Police Department

There’s a new room in the Virginia Military Institute Police Department. It’s the first of its kind on a college campus in Virginia and ready to be used to help survivors of sexual assault. It’s called a soft interview room and it’s all thanks to a non-profit organization. “Project Beloved is a non-profit with a mission statement to educate, advocate and collaborate to change the conversation about sexual assault and empower survivors to find their voices. Project Beloved was born out of a parent’s worst nightmare. It’s the easiest way I can say it. My daughter was raped and murdered April 10th, 2017 and in the aftermath of that and understanding the circumstances that basically allowed her to be killed, we decided we had to do something,” said Tracy Matheson, Project Beloved founder.

[wsls.com] VMI now offers ‘soft interview room’ for sexual assault survivors

Tracy Matheson, founder of Project Beloved, is creating a space for sexual assault victims to feel safe when telling their stories. This new space on campus is called the “soft interview room,” and will be open to any law enforcement agency in the area who needs it. The soft interview room at VMI is the third in Virginia and the very first to be on a Virginia college campus.

[Houston Police Department] Project Beloved Soft Interview Room

HPD is proud to partner with Tracy Matheson, founder of Project Beloved, a non-profit organization who installs soft interview rooms for the investigations of sexual assault and domestic violence. Project Beloved's install of soft interview room #42 at the Houston Police Department creates a trauma-informed space for survivors to share their experiences of abuse and assault.

[wfaa.com]This Fort Worth non-profit designs cozy, soft interview rooms in law enforcement offices for sexual assault victims

FORT WORTH, Texas — What do you picture when you think about an interview room at a police department?

“The traditional model of interviewing a victim is in cold, stark and sterile environment, where the law enforcement sits across the table from the victim and asks what, what, when, where," Tracy Matheson said.

Matheson's 22-year-old daughter, Molly Jane Matheson, was raped and killed in 2017. Tracy Matheson said she started Project Beloved on the one-year anniversary losing her daughter.

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