Our Recommendation
We highly recommend supporting The Other Side Academy because they consistently measure appropriate outcomes to understand if their work is successful. This page on their website describes the behavior change results that they are seeing.
The Other Side Academy meets the requirements for 4 of our 4 key criteria:
✔ Understand the Social Issue
✔ Ultimate Outcome Goals (Life Changes)
✔ Evidence of Success
✔ Counterfactual Impact
Their Vision
The Other Side Academy is not just about getting people off drugs. It is about helping people create purposefully, connected, and happy lives. Ultimately, the only real measure of our work is how many of our students develop the character required to create that kind of life. That is our ultimate goal. Our minimal goal is that in the years after graduation, our students are drug-free, crime-free, and gainfully employed.
The Problem: Cycles of Incarceration and Addiction in the U.S.
Across the United States, millions of individuals exit prison each year only to face the same forces that led them there—addiction, poverty, homelessness, and lack of opportunity. These systemic challenges make it difficult to truly start over, particularly for those with lengthy criminal records and histories of substance abuse.
Traditional rehabilitation programs often fall short. Many offer short-term fixes, lack accountability, or fail to provide meaningful work and support. As a result, recidivism rates remain shockingly high, with upwards of 70% of formerly incarcerated individuals reoffending within five years.
The Solution: The Therapeutic Community Model
The Other Side Academy (TOSA) is breaking this cycle by offering a long-term, cost-free residential program for individuals seeking real transformation. Instead of relying on therapists or state funding, TOSA uses a powerful peer-led model that fosters behavior change through honesty, accountability, and hard work.
Students live together for a minimum of two and half years in a peer-led community, working in self-sustaining social enterprises like The Other Side Movers and The Other Side Builders. These businesses do more than generate revenue—they are the very mechanism by which lives are rebuilt. Participants learn job skills, leadership, and integrity, all within a community committed to personal change.
A Sample of Their Outcomes
The Other Side Academy firmly believes that no nonprofit should exist if they don't clearly outline and measure their goals. TOSA has defined their success to be keeping individuals drug free, crime free, and employed. TOSA measures these goals.
- 14% recidivism rate of all graduates (in 10th year in 2025)
- 100% of TOSA students are employed upon graduation
- 84% of all graduates are still employed
- 83% of all graduates are still crime-free
- 74% of all graduates are still drug-free
A Sample of Their Impacts
- Utah ex-convicts are have a 60–65% employment rate within one year post-release, with most facing significant re-entry barriers.
- 46% recidivism rate of individuals released from Utah prisons over a five year period.
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