Tina’s House Awarded a $10K Grant

Friends of the Ocean County Child Advocacy Center announces the award of a $10-thousand dollar grant for Tina's House.

Friends Chair, retired Judge Barbara Ann Villano, said the grant is being awarded by the Toms River-based Helping Others Grow Organization.

"The grant is going to be applied to cover the cost of a new video camera which is going to be used for the child interviews," said Villano.

She adds, the new equipment will help prosecutor's and defense attorneys better determine the fairness of the process because they'll be better able to see what's going on during an interview with a child.

Friends of the Ocean County Child Advocacy Center is a nonprofit organization formed to help raise money for Tina's House. Villano said there's a volunteer in their group that researches and applies for grants for the center. As a result they also recently received another grant for training from Investor's Savings Bank.

"Which is going to go a long way to assist and make sure that we meet the national standards of our accrediation and to make sure the investigative staff there is familiar with state-of-the-art technics and materials."

Villano said other than the camera equipment, Tina's House is well equipped technologically by the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office. She adds on the wish list is a larger facility for Tina's House in the future.

According to its press release, the Helping Others Grow Organization described the grant award to Tina's house as a new partnership with the facility. The group said they're planning to work with Tina's House "to add a clinical component to their mufti-disciplinary approach."