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:
Community, care and connection instead of police, prisons and punishment.
Our principles reflect the broader political struggles we align with, while our ethics guide how we practise those commitments in our everyday work and relationships.
Our ethics
Accountability
Being accountable means holding ourselves to the same principles we demand of systems — fairness, integrity, and answerability to the people most affected by injustice.
Independence
Independence is the ability to act free from carceral or corporate influence, allowing Flat Out to prioritise the voices and needs of criminalised women, trans and gender-diverse people without compromise.
Solidarity
Solidarity means standing with others in shared struggle, recognising our interconnectedness and committing to collective action for liberation.
Our principles
Anti-racism
Anti-racism is an active commitment to identifying, challenging, and changing the values, structures, and behaviours that perpetuate racism, both internally and systemically.
Decarceration
Decarceration is the strategy of reducing reliance on prisons and policing by investing in community-based alternatives that promote safety, healing, and justice
Decolonisation
Decolonisation is the active process of dismantling colonial structures, centring Indigenous sovereignty, and supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People’s rights to land, culture, and self-governance.
Decriminalisation
Decriminalisation involves removing laws and policies that punish people for poverty, survival, drug use, or marginalisation, and instead addressing social issues through care, housing, and support.
Intersectional feminism
Intersectional feminism recognises that systems of oppression such as racism, classism, and ableism intersect with patriarchy, and rely on each other to function. It works to dismantle all forms of inequality by centring those most impacted.
Margin-to-centre
‘Margin to centre’ means shifting power by centring the voices, leadership, and experiences of those most criminalised and marginalised. We do not cherry-pick who is ‘easiest’ to support, we stand with those most impacted by intersecting systems of oppression.
Self-determination
Self-determination is the right of individuals and communities to make decisions about their own lives, futures, and governance, especially for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples whose autonomy has been denied by colonisation.