Southern Illinois will be the home of a new Child Protection Training Academy, first developed at the University of Illinois Springfield. The site will train Illinois Department of Children and Family Services team members, law enforcement and other frontline professionals how to better protect at-risk youth from abuse using simulated training.

Leaders from SIU School of Medicine, UIS's Child Protection Training Academy, the Poshard Foundation for Abused Children and related organizations are working together to identify a physical location for the new simulation lab near SIU Carbondale's campus.