Currently, the Empowering Justice program is working with five of Winnipeg's worst and most violent young car thieves ¬ -- classified as "level 4" chronic offenders under the Winnipeg Auto Theft Suppression Strategy (WATSS).

Many of these youth live in "poverty you can't imagine," [Liz Wolff] says, and their parents' capacity to care for them has been disrupted by this crisis.

In the case of a youth about to be released from jail who's involved with the program, Wolff says she and her colleagues take the approach where they'll figuratively "wrap ourselves around him until he can stand on his own."