Synopsis

For the first time on television, the docuseries Au cœur de la DPJ provides a rare inside look at the daily lives of youth protection (DPJ) workers – women who carry out the vital mission of protecting our children at risk. The series takes us out into the field where we follow real-life cases over the season’s 10 half-hour episodes.
All too often, tragic events in the headlines remind us of the harsh reality of children growing up in circumstances in which their safety and healthy development are endangered. Learning these stories, we feel a collective sense of powerlessness that shakes our faith in the system that is supposed to protect the most vulnerable. And yet, out in the field are thousands of social workers – the vast majority of them women – striving unreservedly to save children in difficulty. Day in day out, they deal with hardship, suffering and distress, and endure abuse, threats and insults. For the children, they play the role of missionaries, warriors, guardian angels. Because they work in the shadows and are bound by confidentiality, however, their work goes largely unnoticed, misunderstood and unloved. Our cameras were granted exclusive, unprecedented access to these workers’ day-to-day, lifting the veil on their reality. By turns heartbreaking, shocking and poignant, this series follows them on the ground, in real life – into the heart of the DPJ .