THE OTHER SIDE ACADEMY

"To see radical transformation in people society had given up on — people whose families had given up on them — and now watch them thriving, reuniting with loved ones, contributing to society… that’s what real compassion looks like."

That belief, expressed by Tim Stay, lies at the heart of The Other Side Academy’s radical model for change — a model shaped by people, not programs. In a world awash with short-term fixes and broken systems, TOSA and The Other Side Village offer a compelling alternative: leadership built on accountability, agency, and the conviction that people can change if they adopt the right attitude driven by culture.

Culture by Design

The culture at TOSA is unlike anything seen in traditional recovery or housing programs. From the outside, it feels alive — a place buzzing with purpose. On the Fourth of July, decorations hung from the windows. Landscaping around the campus is immaculate. The Armstrong mansion is meticulously clean, nothing is out of place. Inside the adjacent building students are taught how to speak before each other by sharing what they think about the day’s top headlines. The immediate question on my mind is, ‘How do you take hardened criminals; folks serving 20-30 years in prison and get them to embrace such a strict and regimented culture?’ Tim Stay answers this way:

“We realized that [a winning culture] wasn't something that Joseph or I had the ability to help instill,” says Stay, referring to his co-founder Joseph Grenny, a social scientist, best-selling author of Crucial Conversations, and co-founder of VitalSmarts. “We needed someone who had that culture already in their DNA.”

That’s when they found Dave Durocher, a graduate and former leader of Delancey Street — the peer-run, long-term rehabilitation model that inspired the Academy. Durocher didn’t just bring experience. He brought a team: Lola Strong, Steve Strong, Chris Nelson, and Sharon Nelson. All were former Delancey Street leaders, and all agreed to move to Utah to help launch what would become one of the most effective recovery communities in the country.

“Are you ready to keep going when it gets hard?” Durocher asked when Stay and Grenny proposed the idea. When everyone answered yes, the foundation was set.

A Model Rooted in Accountability

The team brought a culture of accountability. They designed an environment where behavior, actions and job performance is what matters. “It's easy to hide all of your bad behaviors in a comfortable setting,” Stay explains. “But when I've got the real pressures of a work environment, all of those behaviors are really hard to hide.”

That’s why TOSA integrates students directly into social enterprises. Whether it’s moving services, thrift shops, or even the newly launched donut shop, students aren’t just told to change — they practice it every day under pressure.

They learn how to take difficult feedback from their coworkers and boss. How to be respectful to authority.  How to navigate stress and improve on the emotional intelligence to move past destructive habits and handle difficult situations. And most importantly, they learn how to be accountable to one another, work as a team all while gaining vocational skills that they can take with them to land a great job or career when they graduate.

Independence from Broken Systems

Unlike many recovery and homeless service programs, TOSA has never taken a dime of government funding. That was a deliberate choice.

“We saw programs that started strong,” says Stay, “but when they took government money, they were forced to shorten timelines and change what made them effective.”

Government contracts often mean cutting program durations in half or more. For the population TOSA serves — persistent reoffenders and chronic addicts — that’s a recipe for failure. “The data shows the longer the treatment, the better the results,” Stay says. “It’s called the dosage effect.”

Besides the benefit of their program offering “whole-person change” which Durocher says requires at least two years, sometimes three, “In my case it took six years.” says Durocher. But at the end is a new person, who is no longer blaming others for their problems. 

Radical accountability is the formula, which not everyone is willing to accept. But the graduates' success speaks for itself. Seventy-eight percent of graduates never return to prison. But it might seem a problem with emulating this model would be the lack of funding, due to their adherence to not taking any government money. How are they making it?

Tim Stay said that In just 19 months, TOSA became fully self-sustaining through its student-run enterprises. That independence preserves the integrity of their program and protects it from the dilution so common in the industry.

The Other Side Village: Sobriety with Dignity

After TOSA’s success, Stay, Durocher, and Grenny launched The Other Side Village — a sober living community for formerly homeless individuals, many of whom had spent nearly a decade on the streets. Like the Academy, the Village rejects the idea that housing alone is enough. They hired Preston Cochrane, who had worked for Unsheltered Utah to launch the village and oversee its operations. When Stay first examined how TOSA would enter into the permanent supportive housing arena, he was surprised by what he found.

“There wasn’t a single government-supported housing model that required sobriety,” Stay says. “Not one.” The reason the government-run programs don’t require sobriety is the model depends on residents working on their addictions when they feel ready. Unfortunately, as Utah Stories has reported, seldom do they feel ready for sobriety. As a result most NGO permanent supportive housing facilities have rampant drug use and trafficking occurring on-site. 

TOSA realized they would need a special place to get their would-be residents sober before getting into their own tiny home. They needed to prepare residents for the life skills they would need to succeed in the community. But nothing like this existed in the community. So they built one. 

Before moving in, residents spend six to twelve months at the prep school stabilizing their mental health, addressing addiction, and practicing new behaviors. Only after that preparation are they eligible for permanent housing.

The Village also operates under a simple but firm expectation: no drugs. If someone relapses, they aren’t discarded. Instead, they’re offered support — short-term programs, refresher stays at the prep school, or other resources. But there is always a consequence.

“We have an obligation to the other residents,” says Stay. “If we are tolerant [of drug use], we are not meeting that commitment.”

Compassion Without Compromise

The program's leadership sees compassion not as tolerance, but as providing the tools for someone to live their best life. That includes clear rules, firm consequences, and a deep belief in agency.

“We believe people have agency and a choice,” Stay says. “If someone says, ‘I want to keep using drugs,’ then the Village is not going to be a place where you can do that.”

That stance has drawn criticism from those who argue that addiction is a disability and drug use should be accommodated. But TOSA's results speak for themselves.

Students and Village residents alike are transforming their lives, not through comfort, but through structure, accountability, and peer-led support. The results are radical. Lives once written off are now stories of reunion, productivity, and self-worth.

Leading with Vision

Leadership at TOSA is not confined to titles. It includes people like Moe Egan, hired soon after launch, who helped strengthen the culture. It includes students who take responsibility for one another. It includes those like Sharon and Chris Nelson, who laid the foundation in Salt Lake, and Lola and Steve Strong, who brought the same standard to the Denver campus.

And it includes Joseph Grenny, who still volunteers 30+ hours a week despite running a business, and Tim Stay, who stepped away from a successful tech career to work full time at the Academy and the Village.

Together, they’ve built more than a program. They’ve built a culture. A sustainable, replicable, scalable community of change.

As Stay puts it, “To me, that's what real compassion is — helping someone have the tools to live their best life. And I think that's what the Academy and the Village does really well."

In a world eager for shortcuts, The Other Side Academy shows what happens when people lead with integrity, clarity, and commitment. It is leadership not just in theory, but in practice. And it is saving lives every single day.