Project Beloved: A partnership built on caring for survivors of sexual assault
Written by SAFE
Our partners at Project Beloved understand how to provide warm, comforting care to survivors of sexual assault. Last month, the nonprofit installed a soft interview room at SAFE to help survivors feel as comfortable as possible when they choose to speak with law enforcement while receiving services at SAFE.
Project Beloved is an organization created by Tracy Matheson after she found her 22-year-old daughter, Molly Jane, raped, strangled, and murdered in her Texas Christian University-area garage apartment in April of 2017. After that devastating, traumatic loss, Tracy created Project Beloved with the goal of making a world where survivors of sexual assault are heard and believed, perpetrators are prosecuted, and justice is served. SAFE’s Sexual Assault Services department works toward a similar goal—which drew the organizations together.
Image description: A photo of the inside of the new soft interview room. A mirror is on the wall and pleasant decorations are on a shelf.
Tracy and Project Beloved have been providing SAFE’s Eloise House forensic clinic with Beloved Bundles for many years. These bundles include soft clothing, undergarments, hygiene products, and other items for survivors seen at hospitals. But on Jan. 28, Project Beloved installed a soft interview room at SAFE—with generous financial support from H-E-B.
This soft interview room, located on SAFE’s Grove Boulevard campus next to the clinic, will be used when survivors of sexual assault decide to speak with law enforcement when reporting an assault, to go over photo lineups, or to conduct other private interviews.
Project Beloved put so much care into creating a comfortable space, which includes:
- Comfortable chairs that swivel—movement can be soothing to a survivor
- Alternate light sources to use instead of, or in addition to, overhead lights for a nicer feel to the space
- A diffuser with lavender essential oil as a calming scent if survivors would like to use it
- A weighted blanket and a soft, cozy blanket (both of which are washable)
- Stress balls to give the survivor something to hold in their hands and help relax
- Photographic art on the walls, which was taken by another fatal victim of sexual assault by the same perpetrator
Image description: A photo of a soft interview room, including comfortable chairs, a nice carpet, muted lighting, pleasant paintings of flowers on the walls, and an oil diffusor.
Tracy of Project Beloved said, “It is our hope that this space will provide a much needed, trauma-informed resource for those who use it.” This is the 39th soft interview room that Project Beloved has created, and the first fully funded through a very generous grant from H-E-B.
This is the first time that SAFE has had a dedicated interview room, and we are so grateful to Project Beloved for creating such a beautiful, trauma-informed space!
Image description: A plaque hung on the wall of the soft interview room describing the Project Beloved and the reason for their work.
