Community Court and Budget Office outline pilot to train community organizations on mobile court navigation

Robert Kingham, administrator of the Downtown Austin Community Court, and Vicki Pritjian from the Office of Budget and Organizational Excellence briefed the Public Health Committee on June 4 about a follow-up to a 2024 resolution asking the city to strengthen partnerships with community organizations.

Kingham said the court and the budget office worked together to design a pilot that supplements the city’s mobile court work by training community partners to perform court-navigation functions for their clients. The pilot will work with up to 10 community organizations and use up to $25,000 through the fall to implement navigation training and extend the reach of the court’s mobile services.

The pilot is funded from existing resources in the community court’s budget for the current year; staff said pilot findings will inform future budget recommendations if scale-up requires additional funds. Kingham described the program as a way to let trusted community organizations help clients identify open cases or warrants, connect them to the judge and prosecutor when appropriate, and resolve cases where possible without deploying the community court team in person.

Council members asked whether additional funding would be required; staff said the pilot is implementable with current resources but could generate future budget recommendations based on lessons learned.

Kingham and Budget Office staff said the pilot is intended to widen access to court navigation for people served by community organizations and to reduce barriers clients face when trying to resolve low-level cases.