What's Replacing 'Kids in the Middle' at Monroe Ave. Location?

A few weeks after Kids in the Middle pulled up stakes from its home at 121 W. Monroe Ave., and moved to Maplewood, the building is preparing for a new tenant.

The University of Missouri-St. Louis owns the building and workers there are preparing it for the university's Children's Advocacy Center, which expects to open there this spring.

The center is affiliated with the university's psychology department and works with children from ages 3-17 who have experienced trauma, providing interviews and counseling.

The center is expected to move into the two-house complex in May, according to Executive Director Jerry Dunn.

A reader asked Patch about the building, which had been vacant since Kids in the Middle departed: "I saw that there was some microbial abatement work being done; that seems complete," the reader wrote. "But the buildings just sit empty."

The website says the location will provide counseling, forensic interviews, victim advocacy and a "mock-house" to teach students in the child advocacy studies program. Dunn said a "mock-house" is a teaching lab, where students can role-play the conditions they might find when investigating reports of child abuse, for example, Dunn said.

"The building will include an interview suite, offices for Forensic interviewers, victim advocates and therapists, an art therapy room, play therapy room and group/family therapy rooms," the website says.