How will the Other Side Village deal with disagreement, conflict, and crime?

In healthy communities and safe neighborhoods, 95% of problems aren’t handled by the police, they’re handled by the community. The Other Side Village will work the same way. In six years of operation, The Other Side Academy has had no dirty drug tests, no acts of violence, and has maintained great relationships with its neighbors because the students of the Academy are the first line of responsibility for keeping things peaceful, safe, and clean. Here’s how it will work at the Village:

1. Peers are the first line of defense. Different from most neighborhoods, ours will be a Village where everyone is in everyone else’s business. People will speak up when they see problems. We will offer reminders and corrections to each other when someone is getting off track. The Village is organized into neighborhoods of 25-30 homes. All these homes form a ring around a central gathering place. This structure encourages interaction and increases awareness of the needs and challenges of neighbors. In addition, new neighbors will be trained to speak up and maintain strong community norms.
2. Village leaders get involved next. For problems that can’t be solved between neighbors, there will be Neighbor Councils. Each neighborhood has a Tribe Leader and Tribe Aid. These are peers who agree to take leadership responsibility within their neighborhood. These leaders are trained in “Restorative Justice” – a problem-solving process through which those who are wronged can be heard, and amends can be made. If someone behaves in ways that offend or hurt a neighbor, they will be required to participate in a Neighbor Council to address it.
3. Civil authorities are called whenever needed. If the offense is of a criminal nature, the police will be called first. If someone breaks a law, we will immediately report it to the police.

When people live in a community with strong and obvious norms, they behave much better than when we don’t. We will have problems. But we will have ways of solving them that are far faster and more effective than most neighborhoods because of our Village culture.