Florence Dabin, France enfance protégée, Digi Mart USA News (Loiret, France): Florence Dabin, president of France enfance protégée, spent two days in the Loiret department as part of her Tour de France de l’enfance, which took place on October 29 and 30. In that role she visited the parental relief center in Gien, the Maison de l’enfance (MDE) and the Institut socio-éducatif médicalisé pour adolescents (Isema).
Dabin holds several roles, including president of the Maine-et-Loire departmental council, vice-president of the Assemblée des départements de France (ADF) in charge of children’s issues, and president of France enfance protégée. The organization, funded equally by the state and the departments, operates the 119 helpline, supports adoption and searches for origins.
Marc Gaudet, president of the Loiret departmental council, accompanied by Florence Galzin, vice-president in charge of childhood, education and youth, presented several child protection facilities in the area. Dabin first visited the parental relief center in Gien, which opened this year.
Two such centers exist in the Loiret; the other was created in Amilly in 2025. They take in up to ten children each, aged two and a half months to 18, for short, personalized stays when parents need time for a job interview, a medical appointment, a hospitalization or respite from parental exhaustion.
Gaudet said that more and more children are taken in by the department and that the mission goes beyond providing shelter and meals to welcoming children and setting them on the right path. He described child protection in the Loiret as a protected policy priority.
Dabin said she came to the Loiret, the first stage of her tour, because many good things are being done there, and that she wanted to share good practices and reassess what works. At the Gien center she met professionals who work at the level of children and parents, describing a welcoming space without television, where children play, read, talk and go outside, and where staff support parenting.
At the Maison de l’enfance, which is adapted to each age group, she observed teams working on each child’s project with the aim of reuniting them with their parents.
At the Isema, Dabin praised the institution’s capacity to care for adolescents in distress. She said the department, the Regional Health Agency and the Ministry of Justice work together to help them, and that the site offers therapeutic support, a nurse, an educator and a classroom for young people who have all dropped out of school, helping them regain confidence, break with addictions, receive care and consider a life project.
Florence Galzin said that despite a tight budget period she had never had to fight for resources, because elected officials are convinced of the importance of child protection, and that highly motivated teams are achieving good results. Dabin entrusted Galzin with leading a comparative study of the departmental child protection committees (CDPE) and the departmental child protection observatories (ODPE).
The Loiret is one of ten departments testing this first arrangement to coordinate child protection actors. Galzin also noted that 16 professionals in the Evaluation and Orientation service support each child placed for the first time outside the family home and assess its impact, and that the Loiret intends to promote the trusted third party solution with judges to help children keep their bearings.
In conclusion, Gaudet regretted that media coverage of child protection tends to focus on certain news incidents, when there are many successes and projects that succeed. As of September 30, 2026, 1,303 minors were in the care of child protection services in the department.
