What we do

Flat Out is an independent, not for profit, community-based organisation that supports and advocates for women, trans and gender diverse people to get out and stay out of prison. 

Our frontline outreach programs specialise in securing and coordinating post-release supports including in housing, material aid, alcohol and other drugs, family violence, child protection, mental health, and disability. 

We also partner with specialist community legal centres to provide integrated legal and social work support in criminal, family law, family violence and child protection matters.

Our Programs

Outreach Support and Advocacy

Statewide individualised outreach support and advocacy for women, trans and gender diverse people who have been criminalised and in contact with the criminal legal system or prison system. 

Beyond Bricks and Bars

Beyond Bricks & Bars is a peer-led, community project that provides direct support to trans and gender diverse people in prison, at risk of incarceration and those returning to their communities from prison.

Beyond Survival: Family Violence & Policing

The policing family violence project responds to police accountability issues, duty failures and harms related to family violence policing, and seeks to intervene into and prevent the criminalisation of victim-survivors. 

Family Violence Justice Project

The Family Violence Justice Project engages with research, policy reform and best practice models to bring urgent attention to the relationship between family violence and criminalisation. The project works in partnership with FIGJAM, a collective of survivors who have experienced incarceration firsthand, to provide relevant education and insight to the sector.

Funding

Flat Out receives government funding through the Victorian Department of Families, Fairness and Housing, and project funds from various sources to deliver innovative and effective services. Government funding provides individualised support and advocacy for criminalised women (with or without children).

Independent funding is raised through donations, grants and grassroots fundraising for the purposes of Flat Out’s social change and systemic advocacy work, and some of our programs. 

We do not take funding from Corrections Victoria.

Our Vision:

Women, trans and gender diverse people are not criminalised
or imprisoned

How will we get there

  • We will maintain Flat Out as an independent, not for profit organisation.

  • We will remain focused on working with women who are criminalised.

  • We will provide high quality woman-centred support and advocacy.

  • We will support women to obtain appropriate and affordable housing.

  • We will support women in their journeys to good health and wellbeing.

  • We will support women to reconnect with family and community.

  • We will actively promote effective alternatives to criminalisation and imprisonment.

  • We will lead and contribute to effective social and systemic change.

  • We will work with the wider community towards our vision.

Our Values

  • Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander people’s as the first peoples of Australia

  • Our organisation being run by & for women and gender diverse people

  • Working with women who are criminalised

  • Providing high quality support services & advocacy

  • Freedom, equality & self-determination

  • Social justice & economic opportunities for all

  • Everyone has the right to lead safe, violence-free lives

  • Being part of a movement to end criminalisation and imprisonment

  • Working with the wider community toward our vision