Through fashion and fundraising, Rising Support Services aims to bring the community together for a good cause.
Co-founded by Alexis Burrus and Raven Powell, Rising Pursuit Services opened in January 2024 to help bridge a gap in support services offered to adults with disabilities. The organization’s first annual fundraiser, “Rising Couture Fashion Show” will be from 5-7 p.m. on July 20 and aims to showcase their clients’ confidence and creative sides while raising funds for a new bus.
“We’re so excited because it’s our first one, but we’re hoping first, and maybe we’re going to make it a tradition,” Burrus said. “We like to do things that they have fun with; they can learn and grow, but they have fun. They enjoy doing it.”
Burrus and Powell, both African American women and Lawrence High School graduates, have worked in the field for years — Burrus, in the realm of direct support, residential care and life skills and Powell in applied behavioral analysis therapy and art therapy.
They quickly noticed a gap in services available to those with disabilities and decided to create Rising Pursuit Services, which would provide mental, physical and social health services to adults ages 18 and up with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The center offers day programing that includes early mornings and nights, home and community-based services and vocational programing.
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All their residents come from programs at special needs high schools, Burrus said. However, most of them age out of the programs once they turn 22 years old, leaving them with nowhere else to finish their education with proper support.
“When they come to 22 years old, they need to continue to pursue just their higher level of learning, whether that’s the social skills, coping skills, community connection, vocational skills, art therapy,” Burrus said, “and that’s what we provide here.”
However, once Rising Pursuit Services got up and running, a new need quickly arose, Powell said.
Many of their clients lack the necessary transportation to and from the facility for the day program to get the care they need. With a bus or a van, Burrus and Powell could pick up and drop off their clients, as well as take them out into the community.
“We thought that the fashion show would be a great way to help support and fund our mission for getting transportation for our clients because in this field, it’s really a necessity for them to get transported from their homes to the center to get the services that they really honestly need,” Powell said. “It’s kind of important for us because we love to take them out to the community to practice their skills.”
In addition to being the first fundraising event for Rising Pursuit Services, the fashion show provides an opportunity for their clients to dress up and walk the runway, Burrus said.
However, it does not stop there. Burrus said the fashion show is also open to other individuals in the community with intellectual or developmental disabilities — not just those who attend the day program.
“They’re working on fine motor skills, they’re working on that perseverance to push through a difficult time or something that might seem challenging, but they get that reassurance that, ‘Hey, I can do this,’” Burrus said. “They’re working on teamwork; they’re working on their social skills and how to be courteous and all those skills that they’ve worked on throughout the rest of the day program. They can apply that to the fashion show as well.”
All the clothes that will appear in the show were generously donated by two local boutiques, LUX and Ivy, a vintage shop on the Monon, and Pitaya, a boutique founded in Bloomington in 1990, Burrus said. The show will also include a catered dinner beforehand with a host and live DJ. A few small business and local nonprofit vendors will also be onsite.
Rising Pursuit Services’ “Rising Couture Fashion Show” and fundraiser takes place from 5-7 p.m. on July 20 at the Fort Harrison Inn in Lawrence. Doors open at 4:30 p.m. Tickets are $7-$20 and can be purchased at risingpursuitservices.org/event-details/rising-couture-fashion-show.
Rising Pursuit Services is open Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and accepts all individuals ages 18 and above. For more information, to volunteer or donate, visit risingpursuitservices.org.
Contact Arts & Culture Reporter Chloe McGowan at 317-762-7848. Follow her on X @chloe_mcgowanxx.
Chloe McGowan is the Arts & Culture Reporter for the Indianapolis Recorder Newspaper. Originally from Columbus, OH, Chloe has a bachelor's in journalism from The Ohio State University. She is a former IndyStar Pulliam Fellow, and has previously worked for Indy Maven, The Lantern, and CityScene Media Group. In her free time, Chloe enjoys live theatre, reading, baking and keeping her plants alive.
