Small Lake City
Small Talk, Big City
Join host Erik Nilsson as he interviews the entrepreneurs, creators, and builders making Salt Lake City the best place it can be. Covering topics such as business, politics, art, food, and more you will get to know the amazing people behind the scenes investing their time and money to improve the place we call home.
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Small Lake City
S1, E50: The Other Side Village - Preston Cochrane
What if love could end homelessness? Join us as we sit down with Preston Cochrane, CEO of Other Side Village, to unravel the innovative and heartfelt approaches his organization is using to tackle Salt Lake City's homelessness crisis. Preston’s journey to Other Side Village sheds light on the organization's core belief in love and community as essential elements for change. We recount a high-impact community event at Pioneer Park that drew over 500 attendees, highlighting the urgent need for sustainable solutions.
The conversation expands to cover the multifaceted initiatives of the Other Side Foundation, which supports formerly incarcerated individuals and those with substance use issues. Discover how social enterprises like Other Side Donuts, Other Side Movers, and Other Side Thrift Stores not only provide work opportunities but also fund these transformative programs. Preston shares personal anecdotes and connections with local political figures, offering a deeply human perspective on the complex issue of homelessness.
From the principles of community accountability to the unique design of The Other Side Village, we explore how these initiatives foster a sense of belonging and purpose among residents. Learn about the daily activities at the Other Side Academy's residential program, the challenges faced in housing construction projects, and the significant outcomes achieved through collaborative efforts. This episode is a testament to the power of empathy and innovative solutions in creating self-sustaining communities that transform lives.
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And these are folks who would be able to get a job. They couldn't pass a background check. Unless you're there day to day to witness it, you probably wouldn't believe what we're doing. It's not getting better, it's getting worse. So if we're continuing to do the same things, why do we expect any sort of different outcomes? Homelessness isn't the problem. It's a symptom of a problem and when you look, there is no one size fits all to addressing homelessness or fixing it. We set up there at Pioneer Park and we were expecting for about maybe 200 people to show up. We had over 500 people.
Erik Nilsson:Let's do this, let's do that.
Preston Cochrane:I mean our first core belief for this Other Side Village and for this side academy is love.
Erik Nilsson:What is up everybody and welcome back to another episode of the Small Lake City Podcast. I'm your host, eric Nilsen, and when it comes to the issues that Salt Lake is facing, there's one that people agree that is an issue that isn't getting any better and doesn't feel like there's a great solution in sight to help solving it, and that problem is homelessness. Today we have Preston Cochran, the CEO of Other Side Village, a village aimed to help providing some of our most vulnerable people in the valley with a place to live and help them claim their life back. We also talk about some of the other other side initiatives, like Other Side Donuts, other Side Movers, other Side Builders, other Side Thrift Stores and more, to kind of hear about their approach and how they are tackling Salt Lake's biggest issue. I think this is an episode everyone's going to love, especially to get a little bit more of an inside scoop on what is going on to combat some of Salt Lake's homelessness. So enjoy.
Erik Nilsson:I always like to think that I'm a productive, independent adult until I'm like now when's the last full meal I had? And it becomes a whole nother story very quickly. But with Rochelle it was fun. So her campaign manager, chase Christensen, we worked together at a Cicero group which I imagine you know, rand. I was going to say you have to know, randy, if you've been working.
Preston Cochrane:When Randy first started progression he was part of that group. Before it was Cicero and they were in the same building as as I had downtown on second, where the post office was that he just knocked down. Yeah, his office was literally across the hall from me.
Erik Nilsson:Oh, no way, that's so funny though I mean obviously very similar. Like I mean arenas of, I mean homelessness.
Preston Cochrane:Well, at that time, I was running a nonprofit that I had started called Fair Credit Foundation, which was financial education, consumer credit counseling, housing counseling, and so I was running that and that's how I met Randy, yeah, and then we worked together on the Dignity of Work initiative.
Erik Nilsson:Yeah, rochelle was fun because I knew her campaign manager from Cicero or Randy, and then when we actually recorded and it was a really good conversation, it was mostly Chase reached out. I was like, hey, this would be fun. I'm like, yeah, let's do it. I need some local politics Recorded. It was a really good episode.
Erik Nilsson:Lost it I have no idea what happened to it Into the ether and so I'm like shit. But then I was like I texted her one day. I was like, hey, rochelle, so my bad, I can't find this. I have the video but not the audio and it sounds terrible, just the video. And she's like so it sounds like we need to re-record. I'm like that's the gonna be the best way to do that. And so so we were literally sitting like right here and I was like, so should we address this, should we not? She's like address what? Like cool, let's go. But she's been great. I saw her at the uh, there was the salt lake city party, the 801 party at second summit, cidery, where the city cast salt lake girls were throwing a party because they partnered with a cider. And then next, like I'm walking out to go to something else and I hear Rochelle's like Eric and I'm like Rochelle. How are you? It's good to see you. She's a great person. The more I interact with her, the more impressed I am by her.
Preston Cochrane:Yeah.
Erik Nilsson:She's a good gal. Actually, one question for you before we get started is I mean, I know you joined other side about a year, like last year.
Preston Cochrane:A year and a half, yeah, yeah, almost just over a year, and kind of talk about that. I was involved in the kind of conception of it when I was working at Valley Behavioral and then they approached me and said we need someone to run this and you're the guy.
Erik Nilsson:Okay, sounds good Okay.
Preston Cochrane:Yeah, yeah, but everything I'll get into that, but yeah.
Erik Nilsson:And so remind me how other side, is it all under the same kind of like umbrella, company or corporation, or are they all?
Preston Cochrane:separate. So the other side foundation, it's a nonprofit, 501c3. Okay, which has the other side academy and the other side village, so we're rolled up under the same 501c3 nonprofit. The other side academy serves those who've been incarcerated, have dealing, you know, substance use, some bouts of homelessness, but they were turning away people that were just chronically homeless who had mental health and had medications, and so with that they said we're turning all these people away, we need to do something different. So that's, that was the morph, you know kind of the start of the other side village.
Erik Nilsson:Okay, cool, and then with like other side movers and other side donuts and that's a whole yeah.
Preston Cochrane:So we have social enterprises and I'll get into that. In terms of um, the way our funding model works is ideally. We want to be self-sufficient, self-sustaining. So rather than go back to the well and go back to the same donors every year and go to federal and state grants, is we have social enterprise businesses, those where our students work and our residents can work as part of their therapy, and that all the proceeds go back into our program, which fund all of our programs, so that we don't and they're free, so anyone that comes in they don't pay a dime.
Preston Cochrane:Yeah, okay, that makes a lot more sense, because I was trying to like figure out so Admovers, the other side Thrift Boutiques, the other side Builders, the other side Donuts to the side Construction.
Erik Nilsson:I didn't even know there was that many. I thought I was thinking there was like Orange. Okay. So there's a lot of sides to this. Facets, if you will. Yeah, and that makes sense of like, and it's all together, because you have these people who come out looking for some sort of professional experience or not professional, just experience and work experience.
Preston Cochrane:Work experience. And these are folks who would be able to get a job. They couldn't pass a background check. No they just got down. So the other side, movers is the number one moving company in Utah and from that the other side thrift boutiques, because people want to donate their stuff or get rid of it when they're moving. So we started thrift boutiques. And then from that people want to store their stuff when they're moving. So we said, ah, we should do a storage company. Yeah, Good storage Interesting. That's how that kind of started.
Erik Nilsson:I mean I like the decision, like the what's called the verticalization of moving and all of the things that you can do to help. I mean support the customer, but also I mean support the business and self-sustain. That, um, well cool, I'm excited. So, um, and it's funny too because, like, like I said, rochelle, um, I was messaging her about something else and then she posted that she was at other side donut Cause. She's everywhere, like she's honestly become like more of a food influencer than some of the food influencers, because she's like I'm here and this is what I'm having and it's good compared to like I mean not saying everybody gets paid for every post. They do, but not necessarily for her. So I'm like, oh, that's right, there's this place out in Magna. But I saw that and I was like, oh, I want, I need to go, I want to see what, what it's all about Just came from there.
Preston Cochrane:We, uh, we've been open for about eight weeks and, um, our hours are 7am to two and we typically sell out of donuts before we close.
Erik Nilsson:That's what I've got, cause I've seen so many just like positive posts I mean news pieces, um, everything about it Cause I mean you look at it, it's a really cool space, like I mean for what people want, for like the experience of getting food, getting a donut. It checks that box because everyone wants to take a picture. Your phone eats first, but then you're like, oh actually, and it's good donuts too. And they're like, oh wait, and it's like for a good cause.
Preston Cochrane:Award-winning donuts. The other side builders did the whole, so students renovated the entire building. Wow, which is cool. Those that are in the other side village prep school work in the donuts. Some of them get up at 3am and go and make the donuts and then some of them work in the shop, so it's uh, it's kind of full circle Cool.
Erik Nilsson:Well, I'm excited. So today, uh, I mean Preston, preston Calkins, he of other side village, which has been, um, the most recent of these, and I mean cause again, like we have a problem with homelessness in Salt Lake City. We've done a good job about solving in the past, but then I mean, as economic downturns happen, homelessness tends to increase at the same rate and it's frustrating sometimes to see how slow I mean the city government can do and how much they rely on, I mean the private sector and other nonprofit organizations to fill that void. And I know that there's been a lot of excitement around Other Side Village and everything that goes into that. So excited to hear more about it, like selfishly, because I'm curious, but I know that that's something that a lot of people are passionate about, of finding these solutions because they're problems and no one has a great solution that we've seen. So I'm excited for this and everything that's going to come from it.
Erik Nilsson:So excited to have you on, preston to hear more, not about that too, which we'll get into, but also to hear more about you and your own personal story. Yeah, cool, thank you, because I know that you're born and raised in the area. I mean what part of, I mean, utah. Were you from? What was childhood like?
Preston Cochrane:Yeah, so I grew up in Salt Lake City just below the H Rock, below Foothill Okay, if you know where that is, wasatch Drive, foothill Drive Grew up there Before there were a lot of homes up there, right. So I kind of lived in the mountains a little bit and went to Highland High School, attended the University of Utah, graduated from there and I spent a lot of my time. So my dad, he worked for the state of Utah but he also was a professional organist.
Erik Nilsson:Oh cool. My mom loves to play the organ. It's been her I don't want to say elderly hobby, but her later in life hobby.
Preston Cochrane:We had an organ in our house, very loud. We also had drums, which was part of a band that my dad played in, so I learned to play the drums still play them today and anyway, he was the organist for the Salt Lake Gold's baseball team, the organist for the Golden Eagles hockey team and the organist for the Utah Jazz Wow. So I literally spent a lot of my early childhood and teenage years going to every game, got to meet so many players and just see the whole kind of city evolve into that. So the whole Stockton to Malone years and all that like that was my childhood.
Erik Nilsson:That's amazing. I've always so I went to jazz games a lot, I mean in the 90s, because my dad was good friends with mark eaton and mark would always text me like hey, I have seats, not gonna use them. If you want them, they're pretty good seats, I think like fifth or sixth row, like on one of the sides anyway, and I remember I was there once and because they play the organ obviously and then I was like I don't know, I remember this so vividly but I was like who's playing this? Like there has to be an organ playing. And my sister was kind of like you idiot, like it's a recording, there's no way. But then I found out later that it was someone playing the organ. So I was like I knew it and I've always wanted to know who what, and now did that for about eight or nine years.
Preston Cochrane:And so I literally grew up at the Salt Palace Dirksfield was what it used to be called Smith Ballpark today, which is moving, unfortunately, but so many great memories of that growing up and still a huge fan of the bees and the jazz and the Utah Hockey Club. Now, yeah, it's just fun to see and I, having grown up here, obviously ski and I love, just love living in Salt Lake City. Yeah, can't beat it. Yeah, you look at the skylines completely changed. You know downtown will continue to evolve and change with the new announcements of what's happening there at the entertainment district and the ballpark district and everything else that goes with that. So it's, it's interesting to watch, you know. Part of the challenge, though, too, is is housing right, affordable housing, and you know, every time I I talk about affordable housing, people say, well gosh, I don't know where my kids are going to live. And I say that same thing now, like my kids couldn't afford the first home I bought in sugar house. Today, no way.
Erik Nilsson:No way at all and like I was. So I recently bought a place in March, a silver Marble Lake district, and my mom always helped, like her kids, with house stuff and it means just something we can do together and like I mean older than my siblings were when they got their first home. But it was funny because we were driving around the avenues looking at a couple of places and she's like, oh, that's the first house me and your dad bought. I was like, oh, how much did you pay for it? She's like $50,000. And I was like that's comical, you couldn't buy that place for $500,000 now, and I mean a lot of these home price issues.
Erik Nilsson:I mean even me who's I mean I'm working professional that works at like a tech startup, like I. I'm very much like semi normal when it comes to like the demographic that would be purchasing a home. And everybody I talked to is like this is ridiculous. I can't, like I can't afford a house. I never thought I would be able to say that, even like the, the, the bottom of the market, and that's with people who are doing fairly well or top quartile financially. And then you look at the other people all below you and they're like, wait, if I can't do this, then what's going on with the rest of the people?
Erik Nilsson:And I mean, thankfully there's things that more or less can be done, but I mean anything politically, especially right now, nothing's.
Erik Nilsson:I mean we're in a gridlock, nothing can really be done, no one can agree. It's all been very divisive and so it's fallen upon the shoulders of, I mean, other people, especially in the private sector. I mean especially when I had, I mean Ashley Atkinson on with the Perpetual Housing Fund and coming with a solution. That way, I mean with other side and everything they're doing to provide another solution. The other way, it really has taken on a different role of people and sectors to come together to say, hey, like we can't wait, people are suffering, like we need to come together. And I know that's what a lot of your wanting to do and what a lot of your historical professional experience has gravitated you towards. I mean, what was your I mean motivating factor to to focus on a lot of these problems or solutions or areas that might not be, you know, at least at surface level, the most financially rewarding, but again helping people and wanting to be part of solving those solutions.
Preston Cochrane:Yeah. So my career, everything that's led up to where I am now. I've worked in financial services, I've worked in nonprofits, I've worked in government, I've worked in healthcare, I've worked in mental health, I've worked in homelessness and with that construction in terms of the new not new but the homeless resource centers that have been built, that have replaced the old downtown shelter, and having been involved with that and Operation Rio Grande, it's all led me to where I'm at now, and so I really have kind of this unique perspective of being able to see different things and blend those together in a way of where we're at with the other side village and just thankful to be a part of it. When you look at the other side academy and their success that they've had working with students and the average student at the other side academy has been arrested 25.6 times and to see the success that they have of graduates coming out drug-free, crime-free and employed, and comparing that to other nothing bad about treatment programs, but comparing the success rate of that to other 30, 60, 90 treatment programs, we blow it out of the water, yeah. And so taking that same approach of a therapeutic community working with that, that population, and then transforming it, or taking some similar approaches, with different nuances, for the village, for working with those individuals who have experienced chronic homelessness, unsheltered homelessness, living on the street and living in what we call a peer-led, democratic therapeutic community is. Unless you're there day to day to witness it, you probably wouldn't believe what we're a peer led democratic therapeutic community is. Unless you're there day to day to witness it, you probably wouldn't believe what we're doing. Um, I see people's lives transform in literally months.
Preston Cochrane:For someone that's living in an encampment or on the street or in a shelter, resource center, treatment program, halfway house, group, home, um, part of being homeless is a catastrophic loss of family and our approach, our community, the connection that they make, the family that they feel this becomes their new family and they regain that sense of trust. They're unlearning old ways that they had living on the street, um, and they're street and they feel like they have a purpose again. They're not invisible anymore. And a lot of times when I talk to groups, first question I'll ask is how many of you think the problem of homelessness is getting better in our city? Just take the capital city, salt Lake. It could be Cedar City, it could be St George, it could be Ogden, it could be Provo. Every, it could be St George it could be Ogden, it could be Provo. Every hand, it's not getting better, it's getting worse.
Preston Cochrane:So if we're continuing to do the same things, why do we expect any sort of different outcomes? The definition of insanity there you go, and so you've got to change the picture, change the optics, change the approach. And that's what we've done with the other side village is to take what we've learned with the other side academy and model that into individuals who've experienced homelessness and what we're finding. And again, the other side village has been in existence for about two years. It started as a day program. It's now a residential interim housing program. We have what's called our village preparatory school and that's an interim housing program.
Preston Cochrane:We have what's called our village preparatory school, and that's an interim housing program where we literally take people off the street. They've got to be sober, they've got to be willing to follow the house rules, the community rules, but they play a part in the community. They have expectations, they have responsibilities, they've got chores and as they do that, they start to find themselves. And our whole ultimate goal is to help them become the best version of themselves through whole person change. And the other kind of secret sauce or unique approach that we have is we have coaches, our coaches.
Preston Cochrane:Some of them are graduates of the Other Side Academy. All of them have experienced homelessness for most of their life. So to have them walk beside another person and say, look, you know what, eric, I've been there. I know exactly what you're going through. I know what that's like to live under the viaduct. I know what it's like to steal food. I know what it's like to dig through a garbage can For them to be able to help that individual, that's the magic. That's the magic I see every day that happens and you see people just flourish and thrive and ultimately feel like they have dignity of and respect back. And it's just. I'm just grateful to be a part of it.
Erik Nilsson:Yeah, I mean thank you for all. I mean not just you, but like the whole organization and everything that they've been able to accomplish, and like I like what you guys were saying of like, hey, we've had, we've tried to do things so many ways and populace agrees that this is not getting any better, and I always tend to lean more on the iconoclastic side of we can't do something new. Just because we've done it some way isn't going to change the way that we have different results, and I'd rather blow it up and fail than try doing the same thing over and over again that failed, because if nothing changes, nothing changes Right and people always say well, what's causing homelessness?
Preston Cochrane:And homelessness isn't the problem, it's a symptom of a problem. And when you look at the dependency, there's this kind of umbrella cause of homelessness. So dependencies can vary, there's government handouts, there's a victimhood, there's addictive behaviors to substances, there's an unhealthy relationships, but the overarching theme is the same, and that is something bigger is keeping them stuck in the vortex of being homeless. And I remember a certain individual who was on the street and he used the word vortex and he said I just feel like I'm spinning in this vortex and I can't get out. And the longer I'm on the street, the deeper I get. And there's all sorts of resources, but you know what I really need? Someone to just pull me out and help me to get off drugs, get me the mental health that I need and connect me with individuals who know what I'm dealing with.
Preston Cochrane:Yeah and um, there is no one-size-fits-all to to addressing homelessness or fixing it. We feel like this is a different approach, doing something different, um, and ultimately, when the village is is up and running we're in phase one of construction right now. We've got homes that are ready, that are built, uh, waiting to be placed. Um, when, the, when the land is ready, um, and folks will be moving in.
Erik Nilsson:uh could be as early as by the end of this year, Because so many people often look down at the homeless population and say, oh, like. Well, you're here because of drugs, You're here because of like. They always try to be put in a box and explain why it's happening. And nothing's ever that binary, Nothing's ever that simple. And with a lot of these people and I think it's like, if even just like zooming out to a way that a lot of people could maybe apply it to their own life is so.
Erik Nilsson:In Western culture we have a very interesting definition of karma. We say, oh, you do bad things, bad things are going to happen to you. But in reality, karma is, if you do the same things, you're going to have the same outcome and you're going to be stuck in this cycle until you learn to break it. And so for homelessness, it's oh, I'm stuck in this life, I'm stuck in these ways, I'm stuck in these patterns. I don't have the power to pull myself out of it. I need help, I need someone to get me in a right place.
Erik Nilsson:It's not going to be easy, but I need to do it and, like similarly with most people, I mean, if you're living a life that you're not happy by, engaged with, feel fulfilled with, then something has to change or else you're going to feel that way forever and so and I know that I mean your involvement with, I mean, the other side is before that you've been formally involved and obviously been tangentially involved with it as well. But I mean, what were some of those first emotions when you found out that you were going to be the CEO, but then also being more ingrained with it and involved with it? How has that changed your perspective on all the things you've approached in the past?
Preston Cochrane:You know, interesting. Looking back, as I mentioned, you know, growing up in Salt Lake and going to all these different sports events, I remember seeing a lot of a lot, but seeing individuals on the street at outside the baseball field, outside the Salt Palace, which was before the Delta Center, where they used to play games, and just seeing individuals who are homeless and not really paying a whole lot of attention to it. But looking back, thinking this has been going on for years and years and years To where I am today, to be able to have a part in it and to be able to say you know what, let's fix this. How can we take what we know and look at the solutions, because homeless can happen to anyone.
Erik Nilsson:Yeah.
Preston Cochrane:And once you're homeless, you're living in constant survival mode. I mean, if you can imagine, all of a sudden you're homeless, where are you going to get your next meal? Now, you got to take all your possessions with you. Where are you going to shower? Where are you going to? You know all the little things that we take for granted. You don't know when that can happen to anyone. We did a, we had a, an outreach event two weeks ago down at Piner Park and we we partnered with Traeger Grills. They were super gracious to provide all the food and beverages and we set up there at Pioneer Park and we were expecting for about maybe 200 people to show up. We had over 500 people. Thankfully, traeger knew and they were prepared.
Preston Cochrane:They had overcooked meals and literally a line of people, and so we had our team of support staff and coaches doing onsite interviews, talking to people, and there was a mom with two young kids who caught my attention and I went and I said how long have you been on the street? She says, well, I'm currently at the Midville Family Shelter. We've been there for about a month. I said, well, what caused you to go there? She said, well, my landlord raised our rent at $300. And I couldn't find, so I was evicted, I, to get out. I couldn't pay it and I couldn't find anything else. There's nothing else out there. So I've, I've used motel vouchers which were given to her and she said I'm on a list but I'm way down the list.
Preston Cochrane:And when you look at section eight, housing vouchers for families, it's kind of like having a gift card. So imagine, imagine you have a gift card and you want to go use that gift card at the restaurant and the restaurant says you know what, we can't get you in and you hang onto that gift card for so long that you either forget about it or you're just the restaurant goes out of business. It's just worthless. So a lot of these section eight vouchers become worthless because you have about two months to find a home, and for this individual in her circumstance she couldn't find anything, so ultimately she's out on the street.
Erik Nilsson:And I mean you hear people complain like well, my rent was raised from like $2,500 to $3,000. And like that sucks. And you're like, yeah, like I'm likely in a situation where that works and you can bridge that delta, whatever that might be. But then because, like again, when you're in that top half, top quartile, top quintile, whatever you want to look at it, as you don't realize, everybody down from there is feeling that exponentially worse and feels far harsher, um, uh, impacts from that.
Erik Nilsson:And it's always interesting too, because, again, I feel like the homeless population and the population that struggles the most is often, um, demoralized a lot, dehumanized a lot. They're just kind of talked in this broad group. What do we do with them? And a lot of people, whether it's because of their own experience in life, feel dissociated with it. But then you find out they're like, oh well, actually my cousin, brother-in-law, friend, whatever, is actually experiencing homelessness and it's like this light awakens and they're like I didn't realize, this is what it was like. And it's like, yeah, it's a whole different experience than people think when you can see it firsthand and see what it does. When you can see it firsthand and see what it does, because, like your early point of like oh, it destroys families, and like the family relationship and like seeing what that actually does to a family from a personal point of view changes a lot of opinions very quickly.
Preston Cochrane:It really does. It's a good point, because what would it look like, instead of continuing kind of this cycle of disconnection from our unhoused neighbors, if instead we embraced having relationships with them? And so you know, if I ask you, do you have, do you know someone who's homeless or unsheltered? Do you have lunch with them? Do you talk to them on a frequent basis? And when we humanize our understanding of those struggling, we start to to be, we begin to dismantle, uh, the barriers keeping us from acting with empathy.
Preston Cochrane:Yep, and that's what I hear a lot from people on the street is I feel invisible. People throw things at me, driving by, people yell at me. I just feel like, you know, I'm not even a human anymore. And so we've taken the approach no-transcript, and you've got to start with what's the foundation that's keeping someone on the street? And and look at those underlying issues and solve those underlying issues. And obviously housing is important, but you can't put the roof on first. Yeah, you got to start at the basic baseline and meet them where they're at, whether it's mental health, whether it's substance use, whether it's a violent relationship you've been in or whatever your past circumstance is, you've got to meet them where they are.
Erik Nilsson:Yeah, because if you don't solve the problems and, like you said, I mean all of these underlying issues are things that get in the way of them being a successful life, whatever how are they defined success? And if you don't say that you're like, okay, here's a apartment, here's a place, go in it, Like they're going to likely end up in the same situation. And my mom and my stepdad did an inner city mission at I can't think of the name, it's not the road, not roadhouse, obviously, but it's one of the kind of like church-owned buildings and kind of like the word they have there. But it was interesting to see her kind of perspective start to change as she saw these issues and saw like, oh, you can't just give someone a home and think like that was the only thing missing in their life that's going to get them to where they want to go, but instead you do have to look on this one-on-one basis individual stories. But then I also love that they're dealing with someone who has experienced what they have, Because I mean you could get, I mean, social worker, caseworker, whatever in there.
Erik Nilsson:I'm not saying all of them are bad or unempathetic or don't understand. They do amazing work, Exactly so hard they do, amazing. But to have someone who can sit in the same, like, sit across and be like, do know what this is like. I do know what it's like to have an addiction and mental health issue experience, homelessness and a lot of these things that a lot of people, I mean, look down their nose at and think that they know better and high and mighty because they've never experienced it. And so I feel like that's, I mean, such a huge piece of it because they feel so disconnected from the world and have been almost like cast out of that world in so many ways I mean, like you talked about, like I mean they're invisible, they get stuff grown at, they get yelled at and like that step towards like that humanity and that self-respect and like respect from everybody else is where that all starts to build.
Erik Nilsson:And I mean cause I lived in Seattle for four years and like I got so used to it, Like it was weird to be like, okay, cool. Like, yeah, there's like four homeless guys there. There's there, he has a needle in his arm. Like, okay, cool. Like, yeah, there's like four homeless guys there, he has a needle in his arm. He's passed out and then like, come back Like I was walking around downtown and friends are like, are you not worried about something? Like oh, yeah, sorry, that's right, we're not in like Seattle anymore, but it's weird to now see the level of homelessness here match almost what I experienced there, and I mean, thankfully we do, like I said, I mean have great organizations that are trying to solve it, instead of kind of tap their foot at kind of the people that should be solving it and being like, well, why aren't things moving faster? Why aren't we doing more?
Preston Cochrane:Yeah. So our model prioritizes social enterprises and self-sustainability from a business but also as a nonprofit organization. All of our programs and I hate to call them programs, but they're free. So if someone was interested in the Other Side Academy, they may hear about it in jail, their parole officer may tell them about it, a family member may tell them about it and say, have you thought about applying to the Other Side Academy? So they can write a letter. We'll have staff from the Other Side Academy go out and interview them in jail or prison and see if, in lieu of their sentence, that they could be accepted into the Other Side Village or, excuse me, other Side Academy. And that's a 30-month program, so it's a long program. And individuals that go there, it's a residential program for both male and female there. It's a residential program for both male and female, and part of their therapy, part of their journey, part of their recovery transformation is to learn how to work and a lot of them have never held down or had a job and so part of it is our social enterprise approach. Those social enterprises, the proceeds from those go back into the programs. When students graduate they can stay longer and participate in a match program. So where every dollar they save, we match it and those funds can be used to help them pay off debt or get into a home or apartment, maybe buy a car.
Preston Cochrane:We just opened, eight weeks ago, the other side, donuts. And what we realized in creating social enterprises is that individuals who may have physical and mental health disabilities, they may not be able to the environment of a moving company or a thrift boutique may not be the best for that individual. So we, we really customize, uh, and come up with, um, what we feel are enterprises, micro enterprises, that can provide a job, provide dignity of work, provide purpose, um, provide a wage for individuals when they reach that point. Um, and so the other side, donuts, and it's been uh, uh, we've got a store on Redwood road seven, 60 South Redwood road, 760 South Redwood road, um, which is unlike any probably donut shop you've been to or seen before. Uh, it's all based on dreams and, um, we got input from our individuals of what those stores would look like. Make your dreams come true. And we've got 40, 43, 42 different flavors of donuts Wow, and that menu continues to grow.
Preston Cochrane:And we've got individuals who wake up early and go make donuts, and for some individuals. We've got one who's just graduated from our prep school. He's been there for about eight months and two days ago I said to him in his report to the community of what he's learned. He said the analogy he used was I feel like I was in a train wreck and now I'm on the Orient Express. Wow, and I thought that's a really good analogy. You're like wow, I didn't think he used that. Here's someone living in an encampment, who has been using, who has some, some, some past with mental health and things like that, and now here he is, thriving in an environment probably never saw himself working in a donut shop or doing having anything to do with that eight months ago and and here he is today helping lead that team.
Erik Nilsson:No, that's amazing to see people see that I mean just reward of of their own efforts to pull like, to do the because they have to do their own work of pulling themselves out of their situation but to have an organization that can give them those opportunities and all the tools to do so.
Erik Nilsson:And I mean just to have someone like that again go from waking up in an encampment not knowing what the next day would look like, to like oh, I have a job that I enjoy, with people that I see, and I like I mean work in a great place.
Erik Nilsson:I mean that'll transform someone's life, regardless of who it is, and I love that you're providing those experiences and not only just providing them but finding new ways to do it, because I mean, like you talked about, the other side donut shop was completely renovated by other side builders, and so you have this almost like slowly self sustaining ecosystem of ways that you can generate money to help put it back in the top of the funnel, to help people in their situations, to help give them the tools they need to, and so it's it's nice to see that, that that can scale and just continues to evolve from from what it is. So I'm excited for what else is to come as well, but I know that obviously, role is mostly focused on, I mean, other side, builders and the projects that are going on right now and getting a lot of traction.
Preston Cochrane:Yeah, the social enterprises really are a vital training ground. It's almost like a mini internship and for folks that are going through that, they look back and say that was the best part of me being able to transform and become the person I am today. I didn't know I had that in me. And so the Other Side Builders is a social enterprise of the Other Side Academy. So even though we're all part of the same family, there are some separations. So my role as CEO of the Other Side Village is to oversee the data operations.
Preston Cochrane:Tim Stay, who's our CEO of the Other Side Foundation, he's really involved with the overall construction. We have a lot of construction projects going on with the village. We also have a campus in Denver and that campus is growing and we get cities from all over the country that say, gosh, we need another side academy, we need another side village here in our community, in our city, and we're happy to share. We share best practices, we share essentially an open playbook of what we've done, what works, and we're not shy to share that. We're kind of an open book when it comes to that, and so we have people that are studying and looking at our processes and how those work.
Preston Cochrane:We partner with a lot of different community organizations in terms of referrals, because we can't be everything to everyone. We require you to be sober and to live in a sober community. We require you to follow rules. We can't accept individuals who have passed uh, passed with uh sexual offenses or being on the on the registry uh or have a past with being an arson, and that's based on a safe safety for the community and so for that we help connect those individuals with other other resources.
Erik Nilsson:Yeah, I mean, and it's nice too, because because again you can't just give them a house and be like all right, here's the keys, good luck, I think this will all work out. But even just to have to go from living in homelessness or a situation where there's so much flux and like again like being in survival mode all the time, I think I actually just got done watching um, a season of alone and I was watching it and I watched it too, but I was watching it. I was like, okay, yeah, first. Okay, yeah, first obviously you got to get watered, then you got to figure out food, then you got to get shelter, blah, blah, blah, start fishing.
Preston Cochrane:Yeah, start fishing, exactly.
Erik Nilsson:And then, like, as you were talking about, like yeah, it's like literally like surviving, like it literally like they wake up, like I have to find water, I have to find food.
Preston Cochrane:Where am I going?
Erik Nilsson:kill me Exactly, and it's. It does take a process Cause. Again, if you just prioritize building your house, you're probably not going to be hydrated or fed and and um be able to succeed. And it's like. Similarly, if you don't have this good foundation and I think it's a good starting place to have of saying like hey, like you have, here's the rules this is like the the first foundation of this like proverbial house we're building and we have to have order, we have to have order.
Preston Cochrane:We have to have rules, we have to have accountability and reliability. And if that can't be met, then like I'm sorry, like this, you can't impact the community that way. Yeah, you use two keywords in in um, you said accountability, and then before you said, pull themselves up um to vital, um beliefs in our, in our, uh, in our community, and to pull someone up. So we say you say pull them up. What does that mean? What does it mean to pull someone up?
Preston Cochrane:Well, if I see you doing something that's clearly a violation of our community it could be you know what, eric, you left your glass of water there and you didn't take it to the dishwasher I'm going to pull you up and say we don't do that here. That's a pull up and it's nothing harsh, it's just we're holding each other accountable and we have a saying called 200% accountability. So when A I'm accountable for you and you're accountable, I'm accountable for myself, and if I see something that and I don't report that to the community, then I'm putting the community at risk. And for some people that's a hard lesson to learn, but they learn that, they learn that concept.
Erik Nilsson:Yeah, and it's such a huge one to understand of like I am responsible for my space and then they have an impact on me. And, just again, to understand like this is a system this isn't just I mean one person alone and learning that your decisions not only impact you, but everyone around you yeah, we also have another belief each one teach one.
Preston Cochrane:So when a teaches b, a gets better. Yeah, when I teach you something, I get better, but now you've learned it too. So here that's kind of the the beauty of having a coach coach is teaching you something, and then you're going to pass that on to someone else.
Erik Nilsson:Yeah, I mean, it's like those simple things that we think are, because, like one of my flaws is, if I know something, I assume everybody else knows it. Like I don't think it's some special thing, but I've realized is I am a jack of all trades master. Like I know a lot about a lot, a little about a lot of things and few things I know a lot about, and when you think that everybody has the same understanding of like oh, like you don't understand how I mean what you do, what you reap, is what you sow, and the decisions you make will come back eventually.
Erik Nilsson:You and we learn lessons at different ways and paces. I mean the same way. You're like, oh, like I don't. Someone has to learn how to be like, accountable and reliable and and and um support their own community and and and help people get to where they want to go. Like, yeah, like that's something that people have to learn and and and grow and be part of that development. And so I know that I mean it was exciting this week cause I saw that I mean there's a lot of lot of the houses are starting to show a lot of traction as well and getting built there, because I know that was one. I mean I think there's a Trib article or something, a little bit of criticism saying they've promised so much and haven't delivered. Yeah, but so it's nice to hear that things are. I mean, as soon as the end of this year, people could be going and having a new house to live in.
Preston Cochrane:Yeah, I'm glad you brought that up Just to new house to live in. I mean, yeah, that's. I'm glad you brought that up to just to put it into perspective. So, um, we've got partnerships with um builders, developers who are building homes. So it's not just the other side builders that are doing that. Um, they do commercial and residential type projects, but we've got partnerships with schools, high schools, colleges, the prison, um and other private developers to build the actual homes. So those are being built off-site year-round, which is beauty because we can build those and then bring them on to the site when it's ready.
Preston Cochrane:And so the challenge with the site that we have so it's 1850 West Indiana Avenue, 8 South, just around the corner from our donut shop. It's 39 acres. We were part of the voluntary cleanup, so that site had not been used for so long, many, many years, and so we were required to go down, dig below the organic native soil, remove all of that soil, a lot of soil and then replace that with the cleanest possible soil, arsenic-free, that you can find. Well, the Wasatch Front doesn't have a lot of that here. So we've had to get very creative in terms of searching far and wide to find the soil that meets the, the environmental quality requirements, the deq requirements, um, so even you know, soil that's, uh, some of the larger projects airport, prison, things like that didn't meet that high, that high criteria, and so we've had to go elsewhere.
Preston Cochrane:But we trucked in over 12 football fields of of new soil, wow, just to meet those requirements. So, yeah, that set us back a little bit. And then when you remove the soil, having a wet winter and all the water that tends to go in there, it was like a lake and so we had to get all the water off before we could put all the soil on. So, yeah, it set us back a little bit in terms of what our construction projections looked like. We were hoping to have homes in by August, uh, right now, um, but it's, it's pushed us back a few months. So we're, we accept fully that, yeah, we're behind schedule, but, um, like most construction projects, there are challenges along the way.
Erik Nilsson:That's what I was going to say. I'm like you, mean there's construction projects that can go over budget and get delayed a little bit. Never heard of it in my life, yeah Right, no, I mean it's helpful context too, because it's easy for people to look at something and be like, no, why isn't it done yet? Why, like assuming that they would know all the details and not understand, like, all the nuance that goes into it. And, like you mentioned, there's a lot of partners that go into this and the more people that have a seat in the pot, the more complicated it all gets, and and and and as well, especially when you're trying to execute on multiple timeframes coming together. I mean that can always be a battle, no matter who has a seat at the table.
Preston Cochrane:Yeah, and the other thing too, with you know, we've got private funding. We have received some public funding just for capital expenses that go along with that, but the lion's share in terms of fundraising has been private that we've gone out. And you know, just for an example of a home, we've got sponsors for the homes, individuals, corporations that say you know, we want to be a part of this. We believe you know, we think that something can be done better and we like your approach, so we want to be involved.
Erik Nilsson:Yeah, I mean, who could disagree with that? Like I can't imagine going to somebody and being like you know what? Nah, this isn't really something we really care about. Because, again, like the more that we can support the people who need it the most, even just thinking about it purely from, like, an economic perspective, the more people that we have making income, that have discretionary income to spend money that usually does a good thing for an economy, and so the more that we can have people in that category of things compared to, I mean, something as simple as this, a lot simpler, but something like homelessness. I mean that's what's going to make things better and it's not something that you can just kind of push to another side and say we solved it or really work on like I mean, like you alluded to these symptoms and not the core issues and think that we're going to make the traction we want to and be able to make Salt Lake the place that we want it to be.
Erik Nilsson:Because, I mean, do we have a homelessness issue? Yes, and it's not just like the optics of the homelessness, that like because I hear people complain like well, this is a clean city, what are we doing? Why are there homeless people. I'm like interesting perspective to take on the issue, but like we can only become so much better as we help these people out and get them to not only where they want to be, but help them become their best selves and, again, like because of the system being able to help them, help others each one to each one, throughout the process as well.
Preston Cochrane:Here's what we've heard, too, from the individuals. People say, well, why tiny homes, why small cottage homes? That's because that's what they want and that's in the affordable as far as an affordable range. They want their own place. They don't want to be in an apartment, they want to be in a safe environment with other people living the same lifestyle as them. They don't want to be in a dirty apartment that may have people using next door downstairs, upstairs that's allowed all the time where they can put their stuff that's not getting stolen, and so that's the concept of a tiny home.
Preston Cochrane:And when we have, you know, we've got some model homes, we'll walk people through, and I had a group of college students that we were showing them and they're all walking through like holy cow. I could totally buy one of these. This is nicer than my college dorm and this is something that I could see myself living in. And so when you look at what are some of those unique kind of affordable housing type models, this is something that not only for individuals who are unsheltered or on the street, but maybe for a couple of first-time homebuyer, things like that. These are well-built, built, probably better than most other residential homes that I've walked through. Yeah, um, and they're safe and they're, they're clean and they're nice.
Erik Nilsson:Uh, it's a home that you and I feel would feel comfortable living in yeah, because, again, like the alternative is going to some I mean like section 8 housing, where you don't know who's doing what or who they are, or in this place, is like barely livable as could be and and instead they walk in like, oh, this brand new manufactured house is sitting here and it's people that college students, who are usually the most like um, it's the word I want to use yeah, not sheltered, but usually have higher expectations of quality than most, because I mean, it's the first time out of parents' homes, so they haven't been like, all right, this is what you can actually afford.
Preston Cochrane:Yeah.
Erik Nilsson:To be like, oh, I could do this. And then also I mean even just thinking ahead, like I mean if this does work the way it does. And then, let's say, private people are like, oh, I just bought this space out in Oakley or Parowan or whatever. And I'm like, oh, like, I just kind of want to plop like a little house here so I don't have to worry about too much and I can come visit and I have a place to stay and just enjoy the outdoor, I mean, and there's, I mean, a lot of proven case studies and examples of people that have done that. But again, it's not just shoving them in a place that will take them.
Preston Cochrane:It's giving a place that they want in the neighborhood. The village itself is, there's kind of micro neighborhoods, so anywhere from 20 to 30 homes, but in terms of the overarching governance and leadership folks that have graduated from the prep school, they'll have a role in that. Yeah, so they'll be leaders in the community. They'll be, you know, strengthening that and maintaining that culture that they learn in the prep school. Because Because, again, you can't just give someone a housing voucher or give them housing, expect them to be able to thrive independently. You've got to teach them what it's going to take to live on your own, live in a house, take care of it, keep it clean, make sure the yard's done things like that. That takes some skill and that takes some learning. It's not going to happen just quickly and expect them to do it.
Preston Cochrane:And so each home will have a porch. Those porches face inward and that's intentional because we want them to feel that sense of community and connection. Yeah, and the homes are clustered around other common areas, so we've got neighborhood pavilions, so it'd be a shared laundry space, social gathering space for those individuals, and those shared spaces are designed to encourage interactions among neighbors, so helping them to build community and socialize and and feel like they're a part of a community. And on our website, the other side, villagecom you can do a fly through what it looks like, what the actual village you know design will look like and we also have, as part of phase one, there will be neighborhood pavilions. We've got some space for social enterprise spaces whether that's part of our own or others a community gathering area, a medical clinic for both medical needs and mental health needs, so a lot of onsite supportive services will be there.
Erik Nilsson:Yeah, Because again, like even something as simple as people like, oh yeah, we'll give them Medicare, Medicaid, whatever they're like, well, how are they going to get there? How is it going to? Like? There's so many other like logistical things that people don't think about. They just think, oh, is this cost being taken care of? Cool, Moving on. But having that again all of they need in a place to be part of that community is huge in building all of that.
Preston Cochrane:Yeah, the other thing as part of phase one is a community in and again social enterprise. A community and will be 21 unique style micro homes, tiny homes, all different all you know come from, and we've searched far and wide as far as what what would be cool, from nightly rentals so general public the. The village itself is a gated community, so so secure gated community, but the front is is um open to the public. So you've got uh, this community in space that will also provide jobs for people living there. So anything from housekeeping to reservations to guest relations, um, all the things that you you to manage a hotel.
Erik Nilsson:Yeah, and it sounds like there's a lot of really good plans in the future for not just other side builders but everything else that goes into it, and I know I mean a lot of these things are things. I mean donuts have only been around for eight weeks. I mean the other side builders, I mean that's only been a project that's been in motion for a couple of years. I mean looking forward to a lot of these, both social and I mean other enterprises, to help, I mean build this system and process into a more scaled and more impactful state. I mean, what does the future look like for everybody?
Preston Cochrane:Yeah, I mean, what's cool about the Other Side Donuts, too, is it's our. So the Other Side Donuts has been in operation for just over a year, so we've been delivering donuts to different businesses and things like that, selling them online. But now we've got a retail shop so people can stop by there, and it's in poplar grove, um, and, and what's cool about it is there's just nothing like that in that community, and so you've got a lot of. I was there this morning and I saw a family come in and said we love coming here. We come here almost every other day. We needed something like this and um you to to man the shifts in the hours. Um, we've actually hired a couple of people that live in the area too, just to make sure we have coverage. Uh, until, uh, until we've got the village up and running, so it's provided some employment opportunities. But, um, the whole, the whole theme of the store is dreams making your dreams come true, and we believe that, um, that we are making a lot of dreams come true.
Erik Nilsson:Yeah, I mean that's just. There's no better place to be in than making people's dreams Like I can't imagine someone who makes people's dreams come true every day and be like oh, today kind of sucks. Like I helped someone like reach their long-term goal. They never thought they were going to Right.
Preston Cochrane:Right, when you drive by the other side of Academy. They're on First South and 667 East. You've got the old Armstrong Mansion on the corner, which is part of the other side of Academy campus. But in front, just to the east of that building, is a white building. It's a housing for students, but there's a bridge in front and it's behind the gate. And so if you go see it, people say, well, what's the bridge? Well, if you look at the bridge, the other side of Academy's logo is a bridge which is a lighthouse. But we do. It's called a, it's a ceremony, it's a bridge crossing. So when someone comes in and they get accepted into that community, they make certain promises and commitments to that community that they're going to uphold and upkeep. So they go from one side to the other side and they cross that bridge. And that's what that's there for. Is that kind of ceremonial aspect for someone to make that commitment and demonstrate it to their peers of. Look, I'm in this, I got your back and I hope you have mine.
Erik Nilsson:Yeah, I love that there's the not only just I mean obviously being there, but to have some sort of ceremony and say, hey, like welcome, come join. You agree to this?
Preston Cochrane:And if you had just gone through, you'd be on the other side of the bridge. That's talking to me If I'm the newest person there walking me over and welcoming me across to this new way of life.
Erik Nilsson:Yeah, because, again, it has to be this community aspect, because I mean, so many of the solutions have been oh, here's money, do whatever You're like, okay, well, here's vouchers, here's coupons, here's whatever.
Erik Nilsson:It's like. There needs to be so much more, because that's like one of the biggest pet peeves I have with the way we've tried to handle problems a lot of ways and not just saying in government or in social assistance or anything, but a lot of people think like well, yes, but no, but yes, but there's like so much more that needs to happen. Like we need the right people to help work on this. We need the right I mean resources, and it's not always just a blank check or huge check to make like dreams come true and again it like creates this system of them helping each other in a way that they can't. Because, again, like I can't imagine the experience of someone who's been experiencing homelessness finally gets to a place where they can have someone, and you feel like you're being greeted by the people who are the ones casting you out of this community, like come, join. I mean that's such a easier entry into that life than just saying like, okay, cool, like let's throw you here, let's do this, let's do that.
Preston Cochrane:I mean the first. Our first core belief for this other side village and for this side academy is love. Humans are designed to be loved and to give love, and that's what I hear a lot every day is I feel love. I feel like I, for the first time in a long time, I feel like someone cares and loves me and I feel like I can give love to them too.
Preston Cochrane:Um, which it's been missing for a long time, you know, if you're living on the street, living in survival mode, um, living like you're just, you know, living hour to hour, minute to minute, meal to meal, that's really hard to keep that going. And so there's a lot of health needs, a lot of mental health needs, and so connecting them to the right services, the right providers, making sure that you know if someone comes in on and they've got medications, what, making sure they understand and educating them of what are those medications doing for you. Have you asked your prescriber? Why am I on this? Because sometimes what we've noticed is they might just be on a medication because that was something that maybe stabilized them, but wasn't necessarily the right medication. Yeah, and so we had one, one individual who had 18 different medications now down to six and he's like. I feel like a different person. I never questioned it before.
Erik Nilsson:Yeah, it's like that simple of things, where it's like a doctor's I mean let's put it this way, the bell curve exists everywhere, even in medicine and to have someone's like oh cool, we just need you to like, we just need to tranquilize you, to be submissive, whatever that might be, whether it's in a prison situation, whatever but like. Then you're like oh wait, no, we actually need you to be a human again. Or like this is what this is all doing to again, I think there's this theme of diagnosing and fixing the core outside of just looking at the symptoms and saying, yeah, yeah, cool, we can solve these things. You're homeless, here's a home, whatever that my band-aid solution might be. And so it's fun to see that there's actual principles that go towards success and have the empirical data to say this does work as a motivating factor.
Erik Nilsson:And I mean, as you said, there's so many other cities and communities are like hey, hold on, help us. And to have a situation where it's like, yeah, here's the playbook. I mean let's chat, let's talk, I want this to be successful. Is is the way that community works and the way that Salt Lake by nature to, I mean Deseret. We are the, the industrious people who want to help and support and grow, and there's so much collaboration across all of the different avenues of this place that I've experienced and it's something that's still so core to our bones.
Preston Cochrane:Yeah, um. So our staff. We've got our director of recruitment, who's amazing, and he's out in the parks, he's in the encampments, he's in the shelters research center, he's all over the place meeting with individuals and finding are they ready, are you ready to make a change? Because they've got to be committed to it and in most cases it takes them at just hitting the very bottom, like I am tired of living this way. I can't do this anymore. I'm tired, I'm ready for something new. But to make that jump and getting them to do that, what better than someone that's been down that before to say you know what, I know what you're feeling. I've been there and you can do it. I've done it. I think you can do it too, and let me take your hand and and and help you get to that next step.
Preston Cochrane:Yeah, and then they take them to a place where it's more people who have done this before and are ready to support and they feel like okay here I am, here's my tribe, yeah, and all of a sudden, like this hopelessness, you start to feel a little bit of hope again. Oh, is that the answer?
Erik Nilsson:Yeah, so we're just going to throw him in jail Right Like just give him fines, that'll help.
Preston Cochrane:Yeah, and who's paying for that? Yeah, us Taxpayers.
Erik Nilsson:Plain and simple.
Preston Cochrane:A lot of times people say what does an average day look like as someone who is participating in their journey at the prep school? So the prep school again is the gateway to the village.
Preston Cochrane:So anyone that's going to be moving and living in the village has to go through our immersion prep school program. It's a residential program, again, it's transitional, but they live there. They're paired with a coach. Many just come with the clothes and backpack, whatever they have, and we help get them clothing, we help get them connected with whatever services that they can qualify for Medicare, medicaid, things like that, food stamps and then obviously the peer component.
Preston Cochrane:So a day, an average day, would look like you're getting up, you're having breakfast together, you're gonna have a group community meeting with everyone and you're going to talk about things that come up in the community. We have what's called resolutions, which is conflict resolution. If I have a problem with someone and someone's doing something, I'm going to call them out on it. You know what, eric? Yesterday we were outside and you you were drinking a Coke and you threw that Coke can on the ground and you didn't pick it up. We don't do that here. We want to make sure we have a safe, beautiful community. So next time, make sure you clean up your stuff and your response is going to be what? Okay, yeah, you're not going to give me some excuse. You're not going to come up with. Okay, you're not going to give me some excuse. You're not going to come up with. Well, I did this, or it wasn't me, or lie, because there's a common saying at the academy that snitches get stitches, and on the street that's not the case at all. You're not going to get stitches, you're going to be pulled up and you're going to be loved and helped, and that's the accountability piece.
Preston Cochrane:And so group dynamics, group meetings, life skills training we'll do anything from art therapy to music therapy, to yoga, to cooking together. There's something beautiful about cooking a meal together. So we have individuals who are responsible for maintaining the kitchen. They get their food handlers permit, they are responsible for the menu, the shopping, the meal preparation, the cleanup. But when you're having a meal together, that's when a lot of these conversations happen and that's where they start to build trust with one another.
Preston Cochrane:And so after that we have what's called social enterprise time. So it can be anywhere from two to four hours where they spend time in a social enterprise. It could be working in donuts, it could be in one of our other social enterprise businesses, and we continue to think about and build new businesses along the way. And then dinner, and then they'll usually be a nighttime activity with the group. But we also have fun. Uh, we do things that typically they may have never done go to sporting events. Uh, amusement parks um, we'll have barbecues. Um, you know, I remember we took we took the the Utah Jazz was great was gracious enough to donate some tickets to us. We took people who had never been to a sporting event in their life, a professional sporting event. It was fun to watch the.
Erik Nilsson:You know, for me, having grown up in that, Exactly and to have someone go the first time like Whoa. I haven't seen this many people in a place I like it's it's. I wish we could all experience that for the first time and being able to provide that for people.
Preston Cochrane:And we took them to a Christmas on temple square. They were able to hear the choir on temple square square, seeing um in the conference center and one of the individuals I said what'd you think? He said I felt like I was in heaven Cause he'd never like experienced that live before Um, and that's that's a really cool thing to see. And you see them change. You see their countenance change and that's part of the beauty that I get to see is when they first start to two, three months down the road. You see it in their face. You see this kind of light come back, return and um, and you know that they're making progress. You can just it's visually you can see it.
Erik Nilsson:Yeah, I mean it's got to be so amazing Because there's so many things that people do that you don't get the whole feedback cycle. You can do something for someone, you can consult, you can do a service, whatever, but you really never get to hear how everything went, how it was impacted, blah, blah, blah. But being able to work in a place where you're like, oh, I see this guy three months later and he has, so he makes friends and they're like like joking around and having fun, you're like all right, like someone who's found a community, has a life, has hope, has like some sort of joy compared to where am I going to find my next meal? Where am I going to stay? Is this person safe or not? Like this person just threw something at me. Like to go from such a strong negative to such a strong positive community, I mean, and just seeing that change has got to make it all worth it.
Preston Cochrane:Yeah, from survival mode to thriving, it's, it's, it's. It's a joy to watch, it's a it's a joy to be a part of. And, um, you know, there's, we're doing great things. The other side is doing great things, helping a lot of people. Um, when you look at, uh, the outcomes, you know obviously, youfree, crime-free, employed over 80%. And if you complete the program and you maybe stay another year, over 90%, where from a recidivism standpoint, that's unheard of.
Erik Nilsson:Yeah, the proof is in the pudding.
Preston Cochrane:Yeah, right.
Erik Nilsson:Yeah, and I mean, yeah, it's like those things that, oh, you like we're doing this and we're doing this well and you can compare it to any others I mean case study example. It's like this is performing better and I'm glad that you guys are getting the I mean the accolades, the credits and seeing everything continue to do well, and not only just from the system you're creating with the lives that you're impacting as well, that you're impacting as well.
Preston Cochrane:Yeah, we have literally. We've got law enforcement agencies, we've got government officials from all over the country coming to visit and witness firsthand what we're doing, to see what they can take back and learn from us. We do some different conferences where we bring people in internationally. We bring experts in internationally, that in their field of expertise and you know, and we're constantly learning, you know we're constantly seeing what could we do to to dial it and fine tune it even better to where we're at.
Erik Nilsson:Yeah, and that's the right way to do it. And that's when you find these cool new new ventures and fun projects that just make more of an impact and you can have fun along the way and think creatively and think outside the box.
Preston Cochrane:Yeah, our common saying is on our wall in our offices is it takes a village and it, you know not to sound cliche, but yeah, it does take a village. From building homes, from having high school students at Canyon School District seeing, you know, I built that home and being able to see that and go, man, I made a difference today to you know, bigger donors who have a huge impact in our community, and to be able to say, man, gosh, look at the lives we saved. Ultimately, we're saving lives. Yeah, otherwise, these individuals, you know, their life expectancy is going to be cut short living on the street. So if we can extend that and that, just that quality of life, I mean it's, it's what's all about.
Erik Nilsson:Yeah, I mean, I guess it pivoting a little bit, but outside of, I mean everything you're doing at other side. What else do you like to do in your spare time?
Preston Cochrane:Well, uh, spare time, when I have spare time would be, um, spending time with my family. Uh, as far as, like hobbies, I enjoy. You know, enjoyed, since my whole life would be skiing, snowboarding, fly fishing, love the outdoors, love to play music, love to play drums Cool, but yeah, so it's. I love sports. I coach some teams for my kids and I love coaching sports. It's just something that gives me a lot of satisfaction.
Erik Nilsson:That's fun. I don't have kids, but I have a niece and nephew, because my sister is one of my best friends, so I spend a lot of time with her kids and it's been fun, because they're eight and nine right now and one's obsessed with baseball and then she's obsessed with soccer. And it's fun because, like I saw it go from like this like five-year-old, like oh, we're all just kind of like just moving around at the same place. I'm like, oh, you guys are actually like doing it now, like you're actually growing, and like, like you say, like coaching sports, like I could be that dad, like I could definitely be that dad.
Preston Cochrane:I could be that dad. I mean it's for me it was. You go from baseball to football to basketball. You know it could be lacros.
Erik Nilsson:So my, my coaching days might be coming to an end but sometimes you gotta go have a seat in the stands and enjoy it from that way.
Preston Cochrane:Cheer them on.
Erik Nilsson:Exactly, yeah, uh. Well, perhaps I want to end with the two questions I always end every episode with. First, if you could have someone on the small lake city podcast and hear more about what they're up to and what they're doing, who would you want to hear from who'd?
Preston Cochrane:you want to hear from. That's a long list. Um, boy, I would say, uh, my counterpart, dave DeRocher, the executive director of the other side Academy. Um, he has a story to tell and I think he'd be. He'd be great, uh great guest deal.
Erik Nilsson:Yeah, no, it sounds like again another person doing great things. And if people want to find out more about, I mean other size builders, other side Academy, I mean any of the other side stuff, I mean, what's the best place to find more information or get involved?
Preston Cochrane:The other side villagecom, the other side academycom. If you want the best gourmet, award-winning donuts in town, the other side donutscom, and from there you can uh find the other side movers. The other side thrift boutiques, um and if, uh, if you're looking for a moving company, we'll provide you the best service in town.
Erik Nilsson:Yeah, biggest, best, biggest, best moving company around. Like even I, when I was moving I wanted to use them Like we can't. I was like come on Like I want to, I want to, I want to do this. So I was like come on Like I want to, I want to, I want to do this. So I was bummed. They were booked out.
Erik Nilsson:Yeah, they were. They were booked out. I was bummed, but it happens. It's good that it's a good problem to have of being booked out. Well, I mean, preston, thank you again so much for coming on. I think it's it's amazing to hear more of these stories that people are doing to the broader solid community a better place and excited to see more of what happens and the continued impact you have. I mean, it's only been a little over a year now and, who knows, three, four, five, six, 10 years from now, all that you're going to accomplish, so excited to see it all, comes alive.
Preston Cochrane:Thank you for having me. It's been a pleasure, absolutely.
