Advancing holistic, person-centered care through stronger case management infrastructure at Austin Community Court
Overview
Addressing the root causes of justice involvement
Austin Community Court serves individuals at the intersection of homelessness and the justice system, often those facing the most complex and immediate challenges in the community. As a problem-solving court focused on Class C misdemeanors, the organization works to address the underlying causes of justice involvement, connecting people to housing, healthcare, and holistic services rather than cycling them through fines and penalties.
Expanding rapidly in recent years, Community Court’s Homeless Services Program has greatly increased its case management team while continuing to operate across multiple initiatives and delivery models, including its Court Operations, Community Service, and Support Units. As demand increased, so did the need for a system that could support a housing-first approach and coordinated, person-centered care without losing visibility into outcomes or overburdening staff.
Customer profile
Product: Bonterra Apricot
Sector: Public sector
Vertical: Health and human services
Challenge
Overcoming software built for cases — not people
Community Court’s mission to empower people to thrive by providing impartial justice and compassionate community-based services is inherently human-centered work. The legal system may call them defendants, but Community Court is intentional about referring to the people they serve as clients — individuals navigating intersecting challenges, including housing instability, comorbid health conditions, substance misuse, and chronic involvement with multiple public systems. But the technology supporting their everyday work wasn’t built for the way their team actually delivers care.
“Our previous software was very court-case specific. It was unable to track and document the holistic work being done by the Homeless Services unit,” said Bailey Gray, court operations manager.
These limitations showed up across daily operations. Staff relied on a mix of court-based systems, spreadsheets, and manually maintained tracking tools to capture client information. Managing multiple sub-programs meant data lived in different places, with no consistent way to connect it.
Over time, the impact compounded:
- Staff lost visibility into client history and program engagement.
- Reporting required manual coordination across teams and systems.
- Tracking outcomes, especially over time, became inconsistent and difficult to sustain.
- Growth introduced additional friction, as workflows that succeeded for smaller teams could not successfully scale to meet expanded needs.
For an organization built around continuity of care, the system did not reflect the intricate reality of the Court’s service-delivery model.
According to Bailey, “It was never made for us. It was made for the court system, and we were trying to fit our homeless services work into a system that was built for something else.”
Solution
A unified system for case and program management
Community Court implemented Bonterra Apricot to bring its case management, program tracking, and reporting into a single system designed for human services — not court processing.
The shift to Apricot was both technical and structural, giving the team a centralized place to manage client records, document services, and track activity across multiple programs. Instead of relying on disconnected tools, staff could work from a shared environment that reflected the full scope of their interactions with each client.
Apricot has been able to truly maximize our data efforts. It’s made it easier to collect, organize, and use our data across everything we do.
This change showed up in day-to-day workflows, almost immediately. Now, teams could build and adjust reports directly within the system, without waiting on external support or navigating translation gaps between program staff and IT.
“We can make our own reports now,” said Jennifer Sowinski, former clinical operations manager. “We’ve never been able to just say, ‘We need to track this, so let’s build it.’ That process used to take months.”
Apricot also introduced features that improved coordination and responsiveness across teams. Alerts and shared records made it easier to track time-sensitive needs, reduce duplication, and ensure that staff were working from the same information, a single source of truth.
Onboarding began in October 2024 and progressed with consistent support from Bonterra’s Success Coach and Customer Success team. The process included migrating a large volume of historical data while maintaining continuity for staff.
“To be in the driver’s seat with that much flexibility and bandwidth meant we could make meaningful progress, better share our story, and use our data to improve our programs,” Bailey added.
Outcomes
Stronger systems for collective impact
While Community Court is still early in its adoption of Apricot, the transition has already changed how the organization operates and how it prepares for the future.
Staff can now document and access information in a standardized way, regardless of program or role, creating what the team describes as “strong bones.” A system that supports growth without requiring constant workarounds or manual coordination.
By bringing reporting, follow-up, and program data into one system, “Apricot has made things more efficient, and that time we’re saving is now going back to our clients,” said Yvonne Mboss, LCSW-S, clinical operations manager. For nonprofit leaders and community-facing teams, this means more opportunity for program improvements and operational planning over time.
Apricot has also made it easier to capture data and use it in a way that reflects the full client experience. Staff can connect services, track engagement across programs, and identify patterns that were previously difficult to see. This feature is especially important in a setting where clients may interact with multiple services over time, often without a single point of entry.
With a structured system in place, Community Court is now positioned to begin defining metrics more intentionally, tracking progress more rigorously, and sharing results more effectively.
Looking ahead
In 2026, more than 20 years after its founding as the first community court in the state of Texas, the seventh in the United States, Community Court’s focus is shifting from building infrastructure to measuring (and reporting) outcomes. One future goal is a public-facing dashboard that communicates program impact to the broader community, something that was not feasible with prior technology.
With Apricot supporting their cause, the organization is better equipped to:
- Maintain consistent service delivery as demand increases
- Strengthen reporting and accountability across programs
- Communicate outcomes more clearly to stakeholders and their community
The cumulative impact is greater efficiency, stronger alignment, and a system that brings Community Court’s model for change to life — making it easier to deliver on its mission at scale.
