Austin's Downtown Austin Community Court (DACC) is punching way above its weight, having just been picked as one of only 10 partners nationwide for the Criminal Justice Mental Health Learning Site Program, as announced on Monday. The city-backed court's focus is on tweaking the system to better serve folks grappling with behavioral health needs who find themselves on the business end of the criminal justice system. Putting best practices under the microscope, the program aims to make these lessons in smart justice into the national standard.

Selected by the bigwigs in the criminal justice reform arena, DACC caught their eye by not just talking a good game but walking it too—according to a statement snagged by KXAN. The program doles out all-expenses-paid training, resources, and support to areas itching to beef up their responses to those with behavioral health issues caught in the system.

This outfit has been batting for Austin's homeless for 23 years. They’ve got services you could set your watch by—diverting the legal troubles of low-level offenders, hooking them up with pros for anything from mental health to job services, as reported by the Journal of Community Justice. And just last year, they joined hands with Uncle Sam's plan aiming to take homelessness down a peg or four by 2025. A holistic mash-up of trauma-informed care, medical services, and education, they're in it for the long game.

But DACC doesn't stop there. Ducking under the radar, they've been the ones to call for Austin's street-dwellers when things turn frosty. DACC is the rallying point for locals when winter bites, making sure folks get to a warm place to sleep and flagging up the court and homeless services to those who’d missed them the first time around. And let’s not forget that they’ve stashed away belongings for those without a roof over their heads, in a place known as Violet Keepsafe Storage—more than 450 people have been keeping their stuff safe and sound there.

And before taking a bow, take a moment for Peter Valdez—praised to the skies by Robert Kingham, DACC's Interim Director, for carving out a legacy of compassion and impact. DACC's top-notch work didn’t go unnoticed—the Council of State Governments, Justice Center crowned them a Learning Site for other communities to get a page from their playbook, specifically for keeping homelessness and behavioral health needs from just being a revolving court door problem.