In the United States, nearly one in three adults has a criminal record. For many, the consequences continue long after a sentence is served—making it difficult to secure housing, find stable employment, or access financial services. At the same time, communities lose out by overlooking qualified people who want to participate in the workforce.
Ohio offers a process to seal or expunge certain criminal records so they no longer appear on most background checks. This can significantly improve a person’s earning potential within a year. But the path to clearing one’s record is confusing, time-consuming, and inaccessible to the people who may benefit from it. The Ohio State University and Columbus City Council set out to change this by creating Opportunity Port—a program that would connect people with the legal help they need to complete sealing and expungement applications.
Since launch, Opportunity Port has helped more than 2,000 Ohio residents pursue a fresh start.
While most legal aid organizations are brick-and-mortar, Opportunity Port serves clients remotely, requiring a multifunctional, secure web application and a creative, technical partner—someone who understands that Opportunity Port is not just a digital product but a critical resource for real people deserving of a fresh start.
Oscar Aguilar’s previous role gave him early access to OSU and Opportunity Port’s managing team. When he founded Novel Minds, OSU became one of his first clients.
“The choice to work with Novel Minds was not a difficult one. Any developer could have built a website, but Oscar was the only developer who demonstrated a deep understanding of the issue and context in which we operated, our users, and our purpose. The program’s early success is a testament to this.” — Hannah Miller, Opportunity Port Program Manager
To ensure Opportunity Port’s continued success, Novel Minds established a bespoke engagement model that melds iterative development with strategic foresight: same-day response time during business hours to maintain technical momentum, monthly task creation and reprioritization to optimize contract outcomes, monthly planning sessions to forecast program hurdles and opportunities, and quarterly roadmap discussions to align on long-term program goals.
Our team works alongside OSU as a true extension of the program’s management team, bringing the same rigor and resources to its mission-driven public service initiative as we would to a private enterprise contract.
Novel Minds provides critical web application support across multiple dimensions. Our infrastructure team oversees maintenance, upgrades, and 24/7 uptime and incident management to ensure the program’s web application is always functional. On the development side, we deliver new features, enhancements, and bug fixes through agile sprint cycles.
Beyond day-to-day services, we provide strategic consulting on engineering, systems, and marketing, and share operational insights so the program manager can make informed decisions to maximize impact within a limited budget. For larger initiatives that require more than ongoing support, we scale up with full development teams and UX specialists.
With Novel Minds as its technical and strategic partner, Opportunity Port continues to grow in both capability and reach. The program remains highly operational and responsive to user needs.
Over the course of this contract, Novel Minds has provided valuable solutions that have impacted key programmatic areas. An administrative self-service tool now enables the Opportunity Port management team to tackle quick fixes for users and execute web application alterations necessitated by legal or university environments — work that previously required developer involvement.
An AWS reconfiguration reduced fixed costs for cloud infrastructure, saving the program dollars that were then reallocated to cover other critical administrative expenses. And Novel Minds' facilitation of a UX subcontract overhauled Opportunity Port's public-facing webpages to more closely align the program with OSU. The rebrand and subsequent outreach activities about the new look boosted website traffic and increased the quality of stakeholder inquiries.
“All the work Novel Minds has done certainly makes my life easier, but more importantly, their work has made the program more credible and sustainable. If I could, I would work with Novel Minds for the entire life of this program. They don’t just understand us as a client. They understand our context and constraints, and they don’t upsell to secure the next contract—they plan for our success, especially for when they may no longer be part of the program’s ecosystem.” — Hannah Miller, Opportunity Port Program Manager
Full survey results are available in DEPC's Evaluation of Opportunity Port Franklin County Services report, published July 2026.
Our success with Opportunity Port can be attributed to a consistent, long-term technical partnership. Because Novel Minds initially designed the web application and has seen it through dozens of iterations, we have the institutional knowledge needed to move quickly, anticipate issues, and reduce friction for the management team.
Paired with an engagement model built around responsiveness and transparency, the result is a stable, adaptable system and a working relationship that supports the program’s mission as it progresses.
Combined with an approach grounded in responsiveness, transparency, and shared problem-solving, Novel Minds provides more than just technical support. We provide a reliable partner who understands the mission, the constraints, and the stakes—helping Opportunity Port deliver meaningful impact to the people it serves.
