WINONA, MINN.

Janice sat in the living room of her filthy apartment, answering questions from a social worker about her new boyfriend. Her daughter, abused by Janice's ex-boyfriend, had just told a classmate that she was "scared to go home."

Such abuse investigations play out daily in Minnesota communities. But this one unfolded inside a unique training center. "Janice" was an actress, living in a fully furnished pretend apartment. Her interview was conducted by a social worker student and simultaneously broadcast to a classroom of peers learning to interview families in child protection cases.

At the National Child Protection Training Center, the battle against child abuse is acquiring new and powerful weapons. Its state-of-the-art training center is unlike any in the nation. It launched the nation's first undergraduate minor in child advocacy studies at Winona State University and has a federal grant to expand to 100 colleges over four years.

The center also trains 10,000 police officers, attorneys, social workers and other professionals each year on investigating and prosecuting child abuse. Last month, the organization became the new home of the Jacob Wetterling Resource Center.

"Two decades of research shows us that social workers, law enforcement, psychologists ... are woefully underprepared for child abuse cases they will encounter in the real world," said Victor Vieth, executive director of the center on the Winona State campus.

More than 25,000 children were evaluated for child abuse in Minnesota in 2008, the last year information is available. The goal is to reverse the trends that perpetuate abuse, Vieth said.

"First, many children suspected of being abused are not reported into the system," he said. "Second, even when reports are made, most children never have their cases investigated. Third, even if the report is investigated, the investigators and other front-line responders often are inadequately trained to do the job."

Even if the investigator substantiates the abuse and gets the perpetrator behind bars, the child is typically older, and it's far more difficult to address the physical and emotional toll, he said.

Setting fake, but lessons real

The nonprofit center, started in 2003, isn't hard to spot among the historic brick buildings on the Winona campus. It's housed in a modern gray and glass structure that angles toward the sidewalk, just one indication that it breaks the mold.

The two dozen students attending a class last week weren't just studying Janice and her trashed apartment, where a creepy doll with a belt strapped around its neck lay on a child's bed. They also watched on big-screen TV as a fellow student interviewed Janice's teenage daughter -- another student actress -- inside a mock forensic interview room down the hall. The students also could get intensive training in how to testify in nearby mock courtrooms.

"It was overwhelming at first," said Michelle Buysse, a recent program graduate who recalled being questioned by a real-life prosecutor in a mock trial. "I was supposed to be the person who had interviewed the child. I needed to make sure I did everything according to protocol, that I didn't put words in the child's mouth."

"But it's better to learn how to do this here rather than when a child's life is on the line," she said.

Angie Scott Dixon, who directs the campus program, said students have mixed reactions to the horrors they find in Janice's house -- as well as Janice. Some are mortified and want to remove the children right away. Others with more troubled home lives "can somewhat relate to the house,'' she said.

Vieth said the training facility is unique in the nation.

"Police academies will have a mock house," he said. "Law schools will have a moot courtroom. A facility like Cornerhouse [in Minneapolis] will have forensic interview rooms. But there is no training facility where you can duplicate an entire case of child abuse from the [initial] report to the prosecution of the abuser and/or reunification of the family."

Training goes nationwide

Winona State students are not the only beneficiaries. The center also has created child abuse curriculum used by seminary students and law students and now is developing a model medical school curriculum, Vieth said.

In fact, 40,000 professionals have been trained by the center's staff and its national consultants, said Vieth, the former director of the National Center for Prosecution of Child Abuse, based in Virginia, and longtime child protection advocate. A look at his calender from the past two weeks shows why.

Guest lecture at the Hamline University Law school. National webinar for child abuse prosecutors. Three days in Virginia consulting on a school district case. Two days in Dallas participating in a national child abuse working group.

"Yesterday, I was in Omaha teaching about 300 prosecutors and investigators how to find corroborating evidence in cases of child abuse," Vieth said. "On Sunday, I'm flying to Arkansas to teach a two-day course on investigating and prosecuting child abuse."

The center works closely with the National Center for Prosecution of Child Abuse, created by the National District Attorneys Association. It shares curriculum, expertise and staffing, said director Suzanna Tiapula.

She said one of the training center's strengths is that it merges scientific research with real-world problems. More important, it offers solutions, she said. "Victor has created a sense among child protection professionals that there is hope.''

Closer to home, the "Janice" case ended well, Dixon said. It turned out her daughter wasn't being abused.

But it's hard to predict the future for real-world families like "Janice's," she said.

"You never know what's going to happen with these families,'' Dixon said. "But we continue to work with them and hope for the best.''

Jean Hopfensperger • 612-673-4511