UIS partners with Creative Information Technology Inc. to build child welfare protection training apps

The University of Illinois Springfield Child Advocacy Studies Program (CAST) has partnered with Virginia-based Creative Information Technology Inc. (CITI) to build state-of-the-art smart phone and tablet-based apps that can be used by the child protection workforce and students across the country.

UIS students in the Child Advocacy Studies Program will serve as the first beta testers for the new apps that will help investigators and students make better decisions when it comes to protecting at-risk children.

“UIS students will have the opportunity to help shape these new tools by using real-world scenarios to test and improve the apps abilities,” said Betsy Goulet, UIS clinical assistant professor and Child Advocacy Studies Program coordinator. “UIS students will have access to these new tools before anyone else in the country.”

CITI will provide the UIS Child Advocacy Studies students with tablets that are pre-loaded with the new app software. 

The new apps will include a modern mash-up of child welfare best practices, experiential and simulated learning, evidence-based tools, cross-sector collaboration and technology innovation. The partnership focuses on modernizing essential practices and advancing child welfare through innovation and a multi-disciplinary approach to technology development.

UIS’ Child Advocacy Studies Program is a three-course curriculum created as a collaborative approach to training and educating frontline professionals and the next generation of child welfare practitioners. The program adheres to the standards developed for universities, and the faculty have years of experience in the child welfare field as practitioners and as trainers. UIS carries the distinction of being the second program in the United States to achieve approval from the Zero Abuse Project.

CITI is committed to human services and social welfare. CITI’s child welfare solution, Unify, will support the UIS CAST program and coursework to enhance child welfare education and skill development. Additionally, CITI will support the expansion of simulated learning programs to create a life-of-case lens for child welfare simulation models and expand simulation training with virtual reality technology.  

Federal government features UIS in video series on how to better prepare child welfare workers nationwide

A video series shot at the University of Illinois Springfield’s Child Protection Training Academy is serving as a national simulation training model for preparing child welfare workers and students for working with at-risk children and families. 

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Center for States, part of the Child Welfare Capacity Building Collaborative and a service of the Children’s Bureau, filmed the Academy’s simulation scenarios and conducted interviews at the UIS residential simulation lab and mock courtroom before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in March. 

The videos and other resources on the new “Keeping it Real” website will be used by child welfare agencies throughout the United States to prepare child welfare workers and students for difficult interactions with families, as they investigate cases of suspected child abuse. The Center for States hopes the videos will help agencies learn about the benefits, costs and considerations for implementing similar training programs in their states. 

“Over the years several state child welfare professionals have visited campus to better understand how simulation training improves transfer of learning and critical decision-making in the field,” said Betsy Goulet, principal investigator of the of the UIS Child Protection Training Academy. “The new ‘Keeping it Real’ website consolidates the research, tools and videos other programs across the country need to begin to replicate the model for their workforce.” 

The videos cover an investigator’s first knock on the door of a family’s home, an interview with medical personnel on how to discuss physical evidence in a case, a presentation of findings in family court, an overview of simulation training and a debrief from those who participated in simulation training. All of the videos can be found on the Center for States' website. 

Since its founding in 2016, the UIS Child Protection Training Academy in Springfield, in partnership with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), has provided simulation training for nearly 800 new child protection investigators. The UIS training module was expanded to Chicago in partnership with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and to Carbondale this spring in partnership with Southern Illinois University. 

“The Department of Children and Families Services’ implementation and expanded use of simulated learning is a major step forward in recognizing that knowledge-based training alone is not enough” said Illinois DCFS Acting Director Marc D. Smith. “The model designed by UIS has played a key role in the professional development of our staff and this video series is a great resource for other agencies across the country looking to improve the overall quality of investigations and better serve the most vulnerable.”

UIS-developed Child Protection Training Academy to be replicated in southern Illinois

The Child Protection Training Academy (CPTA) first developed at the University of Illinois Springfield, in partnership with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS), will be replicated through a new partnership with the Southern Illinois University (SIU) School of Medicine.

The academy’s southern Illinois site will train DCFS, law enforcement and other frontline professionals in methods to better protect at-risk children from abuse in the southern region of the state.

The UIS CPTA was the first statewide simulation training project in the country that provided a child protection training laboratory for frontline professionals and students. Since its founding in 2016, the UIS CPTA in Springfield has trained more than 700 new child protection investigators using a residential simulation lab located in a small house on campus and a mock courtroom.

“The CPTA team is extremely excited to transfer the knowledge we have learned over the past four years to our partnership with SIU,” said Betsy Goulet, coordinator of the UIS Child Protection Training Academy. “The new academy site will expand opportunities and provide a realistic environment for training other allied professionals in the southern region.”

The UIS CPTA was awarded state funding for the expansion, after submitting a request to DCFS. The CPTA team, SIU School of Medicine leaders, the Poshard Foundation for Abused Children and community leaders are working together with DCFS to identify a physical location in proximity to the Southern Illinois University Carbondale campus for the new simulation lab.

In partnership with DCFS, the CPTA expanded to Chicago in 2019 with simulation labs in a DCFS field office on Emerald Drive and 63rd Street. Since the program’s launch in April 2019, 102 investigators have been trained at the Chicago Academy site.

“Expanding to other parts of the state is a vital part of our plan to help protect all of the children in the state of Illinois,” Goulet said. “This expansion will give more child protection investigators and law enforcement personnel access to vital training that has proven itself to be effective.”

The Children and Family Research Center at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign has been evaluating the UIS model since 2016, indicating positive responses to simulation training. The third year of evaluation data indicates the CPTA appears to be positively impacting turnover at DCFS. Non-simulation-trained investigators (hired before 2016) are twice as likely to leave DCFS at the 18-month mark versus investigators who have been simulation-trained.

UIS helps train first responders in how to investigate and document child abuse cases

The University of Illinois Springfield’s Child Protection Training Academy used its mock simulation house to help train first responders from around the country in methods to investigate and document child abuse during a training held September 19-21, 2017, on campus.

The class was part of a national course by the Gundersen National Child Protection Training Center, located at Winona State University in Minnesota.

More than 20 participants took part in the training that provided detailed instruction in the investigation of a crime scene and how seemingly unimportant details can become critical at trial. The training included instruction on how to interrogate a child abuse suspect, how to photograph a crime scene and how to conduct witness interviews.

First responders who were invited to participate included prosecutors, social workers, case managers, forensic interviewers, law enforcement officers, investigators and child protection attorneys.

UIS created the Child Protection Training Academy in 2015, in partnership with the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS). The Child Protection Training Academy has already trained more than 250 DCFS investigators. The mock house and a separate mock courtroom are also used to train UIS students who are part of the Child Advocacy Studies (CAST) certification program.

For more information contact Betsy Goulet, UIS clinical assistant professor and CAST coordinator, at 217/206-8523 or bgoul2@uis.edu.