BRAVE OTHERSIDE ACADEMY SURVIVORS ARE BEGINNING TO COME FORWARD 

Last week two articles were published in local media about the Otherside Academy ("TOSA") and its programs that replace psychiatric medications and therapy with unpaid labor and "tough love" encounter groups.

• KUER: Intensity is the core of The Other Side Academy’s process. It’s not for everyone

• Salt Lake Tribune: The Other Side Academy network keeps expanding, bolstered by Utah taxpayers and unpaid labor

Because Crossroads Urban Center posted those two stories on social media we have had several Otherside Survivors reach out to us and share stories about medical neglect, extreme efforts to separate participants from family, and retaliation against people who left the program. We have also heard stories of people who left TOSA and managed to succeed through other, more evidence based, programs. One Otherside Survivor told us, "I got more from three months at Odyssey House than I get from 27 months at the Otherside Academy."

These Survivor stories are even more troubling when you consider that TOSA's programs succeed at much lower rate than average. Only 40 percent of the people who enter the Otherside Academy graduate. That is well below the statewide average completion rate of 62 percent for other substance use treatment programs. The recidivism rate for TOSA graduates is higher than the recidivism rate for the state prison.

We are currently talking with the Otherside Survivors described above on how they can best share their stories with a wider audience.

This week the team at the Salt Lake City Cast podcast met with a reporter from the Salt Lake Tribune went into depth about some of the things that have been learned about TOSA so far. You can listen to that conversation on Youtube.

The Other Side Academy Is Facing Scrutiny. Here’s Why.

TOSA was a leader in the unsuccessful push to build a 1,300 bed detention center for homeless people in Utah and has been acerbically critical of every other organization in Utah that works with homeless people or people with substance use disorders. It is refreshing to see the press look at them in a more critical way. I could spend a lot of time highlighting troubling details found in each of those two news articles but I would like to focus on a fact that did not make it into the article-- for the entire eleven years that they have existed TOSA has had the same three people on their Board of Directors.

Having just three people looking at their policies might help explain why they are potentially violating labor laws by not paying minimum wage to formerly homeless people working in their donut shops and thrift stores. According to information they filed with the IRS, in 2024 TOSA had $30.8 million in revenue and only $16.3 million in expenses. A bigger Board of Directors, that includes more important stakeholders, might decide TOSA can afford to pay wages to more of the people in their programs.

The tiny home village that they are building in Salt Lake City is located on city owned property that TOSA leases for $1 per year. It is my understanding that TOSA is attempting to expand the area covered by this lease so that they can build more than 300 new tiny homes. City officials should convene a public meeting about this lease expansion and insist that the Board be expanded to include:

1. One person appointed by Salt Lake City to ensure that the city land is being used in the way described in the lease,

2. One person representing the Salt Lake County behavioral health system to help increases coordination of services provided by TOSA with other programs, and

3. One person from the state corrections system to ensure their jail diversion programs are coordinated with state and local programs.

If you support the expansion of the Otherside Academy Board of Directors please encourage the Salt Lake City Council to do what they can to encourage this expansion by sending them an email at city.council.liaisons@slc.gov