Back to the team…
Meet John Libutti
Program Staff
John Libutti was born in Provo, Utah. At an early age, he learned that he didn’t like doing hard things. It started with his newspaper route. He discovered that if he acted like he was going to deliver the papers, but really threw them away, he would still get paid for doing nothing. He found that lying and stealing were easy ways out of tough confrontations. He began stealing from his family and telling them what they wanted to hear to avoid conflict and accountability. In his senior year, he started hanging around a rough crowd and smoking weed. He dropped out of high school, and the weed quickly led to other drugs. He would do pretty much any substance that he could get his hands on, but his drug of choice was heroin. He began committing crimes to support his lifestyle, which inevitably led to jail time. For the next 7 years or so, John was in and out of jail, burning bridges with his family, and pushing all who loved him away. He got married, but only ended up dragging his wife through the misery with him. He eventually ended up in prison, where he learned how to be a better criminal and how to continue this destructive lifestyle. For the next 3 years, he bounced back and forth between prison, a halfway house, and short periods out on the streets. While this cycle continued, his sister told him about The Other Side Academy. It took some time and one more stay in prison, but he finally got there and was accepted in 2016.
At The Other Side Academy, John learned valuable lessons of integrity, accountability, and how to care for others. He learned to face problems and push through them, finally correcting the childhood behavior of taking the path of least resistance. He spent most of his time on the Moving Company and after 2 years was helping run it. Along with this, he was given a position in the house where he was in charge of a group of guys and their personal growth. He loved this and started to love who he was becoming. in 2019, after his 3rd year at The Other Side Academy, he was hired on as a full-time staff member. He now gets the opportunity to give others hope and to help them become the best versions of themselves.