RAPID

About

Rehabilitation & Athletic Performance Intersecting Disability (RAPID)

RAPID’s mission is to help people with disabilities and Veterans with disabilities accept,  embrace, thrive and  succeed in reaching their health, wellness and athletic performance goals. We do this by providing a top-tier, all-inclusive health, rehabilitation and social services program that focuses on life-long growth in a supportive environment.

Our organization was founded in 2019 by Emily Purry. When Emily was a child she was diagnosed with Stargardt disease, which rendered her legally blind. However, she still maintained an active lifestyle and participated in sports throughout her childhood, and into college.

In 2009, while running along the Waterfront in downtown Portland, Emily’s right leg fell deep into an unmarked maintenance hole. With a torn MCL, PCL, meniscus and a piece of bone chipped out of her femur, her life drastically changed in mere seconds. 

This injury, combined with being legally blind was something she was not prepared to overcome. She had no productive coping skills and her doctors placed her on high doses of pain medication. Additionally, she was expected to attend all of her medical and legal appointments while in a brace, on crutches and using mass transportation.

Eventually, Emily began to ask herself a simple question: Why wasn’t there a place she could go to live, heal and get the counseling she needed while being surrounded by people who understood what she was experiencing?

Emily decided that if a such a place was going to exist, she was going to be the person to create it.

RAPID aims to serve people with recently acquired disabilities by providing them with three key services.

  1. Access to health and wellness services, resources, and experiences to assist with an individual’s vulnerable transition period from hospital to home. 
  2. Access to the comprehensive support necessary to adjust to life-altering disabilities for elite athletes including competitive sports, adaptive equipment and athletic facilities.
  3. Access to a residential facility to practice, experience failure and thrive in a safe, supported environment with experts in the field and peers with lived-experience.

Get the treatment you deserve! Contact RAPID today and take advantage of our inclusive health and rehabilitation services.

Coaching

Are you a person with a disability seeking the tools to be a better you? RAPID is dedicated to helping you learn to accept, embrace and thrive in your life!

RAPID offers both single session and multiple session packages for coaching. Please contact us with information about your specific needs.

Public Speaking

RAPID’s mission is to help people with disabilities embrace and succeed in reaching their health, wellness and athletic performance goals. While we plan, work and grow, we are passionate about building our nonprofit through sustainable revenue. RAPID’s founder, Emily Purry, donates her time to provide keynote speeches, training and coaching to families, organizations and individuals with all proceeds going back to RAPID in order to build the RAPID facility.

Emily’s lectures focus on issues about wellness and sports fitness, especially in relation to how these issues connect with intersectionality, accessibility and ableism. As someone who is legally blind and a lifelong athlete herself, Emily is able to bring both her lived experience and her professional skills together to educate others. She is dedicated to helping both people with disabilities and their family members to be the best they can be.

Inclusive Recreation

As we build the RAPID all-inclusive facility, it is still our passion to help current facilities become inclusive for people with disabilities. People with disabilities do not want “their own” place to work out, they want a facility that includes them in the beginning of the programming and physical design process. They want to be included.

We need a facility that does not place barriers on people with disabilities who are trying to use it. This requires that the staff running recreational facilities must be trained to be welcoming and educated. This way when staff members interact with people with disabilities, the resulting experience is not awkward, uncomfortable or bad for either party involved.

Thankfully, RAPID is here to help! Our company offers physical space evaluation, program assessment, policy review and staff trainings to any recreational facility seeking to improve inclusivity and accessibility. We want everyone to be able to enjoy your amazing services while remaining safe and properly supported. Contact RAPID today to schedule a consultation for your facility!

Click here to download the “Pledge to Include” flyer in PDF format.