Mandalay Village

Mandalay Village Review

Mandalay Village is an Arizona based sober living community for men and women in recovery from substance use disorders. It also accepts clients with a dual diagnosis. Above all, this program’s main goal is to help clients find a solid foundation in their recovery journey in order to return to their communities with a fresh start. Mandalay Village is a 12-step based program that requires accountability and teaches a variety of life skills.

Accommodations and Amenities

Several small, gender-specific cottages make up Mandalay Village’s housing. They are fully furnished and home-like. There are single and double occupancy rooms in the units, and each bedroom has a full bed, dresser and closet space. The cottages include a small kitchen, dining space, full bathrooms and front and back yards that the facility expects clients to maintain. It’s worth noting, clients take care of personal items, like toiletries, towels, linens and all food.

There is a “main house” on campus that has holds on-site 12-step meetings.

Rules and Regulations

During the first 30 days clients have a curfew of 10 pm every night, and are to attend four AA meetings, one of which has to be on-site. Their sponsor must sign off on their meeting attendance. During this phase Mandalay assigns each resident a senior peer, who helps acclimate them to the day to day of the program.

To qualify for admittance, clients have to be clean and sober for at least 30 days, and pass a drug test right away. Within two weeks every client has to be working full, going to school full time or volunteering. There is the option of doing all three and having it equal full time, but this is at the discretion of the house manager.

After the initial 30 day grace period the curfew goes back to midnight and 1 am. At curfew clients should be in their own apartments. Mandalay never allows members of the opposite sex in the units. Further, it strictly prohibits having any sort of intimate relationship with anyone in the community.

There is a weekly, mandatory aftercare group meeting on site Tuesday evenings. Clients continue to attend four AA meetings per week, though after the first month attendance of these meetings does not have to be on campus.

There are staff members who are available around the clock. As an added level of support, there are also peer council members, who are senior members of the community. Finally, clients meet with the peer council members once a week after the aftercare group meeting, which is also mandatory.

In Summary

Mandalay Village is a friendly and supportive environment. There are several rules and the structure is clean cut, but there is definitely a bit of a breezy and enjoyable element to this program. Clients are social with each other and learn to have fun in sobriety as a group. It’s a well thought out program.