Stephen R. McPeake Receives Homer C. Wadsworth Award

Stephen R. McPeake has been awarded the Homer C. Wadsworth award from The Cleveland Foundation. This award is presented annually to a local leader who has demonstrated creativity, innovation, ingenuity, risk-taking, and good humor in a civic, volunteer, nonprofit, or public-sector role. Steve received the award at The Cleveland Foundation's annual meeting on June 15, 2011.

Mr. McPeake has been with North Coast Community Homes (NCCH) since 1985. This nonprofit agency develops and maintains housing for people with mental retardation, mental illness and other developmental disabilities in the Ohio counties of Cuyahoga, Lake, Stark and Summit. He is the first and only Executive Director of the organization. He has over 30 years experience in nonprofit residential management and development.

Of his work at NCCH, Steve stated, "It is very gratifying to see where NCCH has come and the quality of the properties we have developed for our tenants. We now provide and maintain homes for almost 1,000 people. NCCH has a great staff that is testament to the high quality of service we provide. I feel very fortunate to be able to provide safe, comfortable and affordable housing to people with disabilities enabling them to live fuller and more independent lives."

Prior to joining NCCH he was the Executive Director of Hope Homes, Inc., a nonprofit organization that owned and managed a state-wide network of group homes for individuals with mental retardation. He was also employed by the Ohio Department of Mental Retardation as the District Manager of the Akron-Canton five county district office.

Steve is currently on the Board of Ohio Providers Resource Association (OPRA) and the Community Fund Management Foundation, of which he was an incorporator along with Dr. Michael Donzella and Gerda Freedheim. He also serves on the Village of Richfield Park and Recreation Board and was a former Trustee and Board Chair of Rose-Mary Center. He was a member of the Leadership Cleveland Class of 2000.

In 2004, Steve helped develop the Disability Housing Network (DHN), the first nonprofit trade association of disability housing organizations in Ohio and in the United States. DHN currently has 37 corporate members and 20 County Board of Developmental Disabilities members and has become a key player in contributing to housing policy in Ohio.

He received his Bachelors degree from the University of Scranton and a Masters in Rehabilitation Counseling from Kent State University.

Homer C. Wadsworth was executive director of The Cleveland Foundation from 1974 to 1983. He was regarded as a man of creativity, courage, commitment and innovation. Prior to his death in 1984, Wadsworth's friends and family established the Homer C. Wadsworth Award to identify and honor those in the community who best reflected those qualities.

The Cleveland Foundation was established in 1914 and is now recognized as one of the nation's largest and most influential community foundations. The foundation improves the lives of Greater Clevelanders by building community endowment, addressing needs through grantmaking and providing leadership on vital issues.

For more information on North Coast Community Homes, please visit www.ncch.org.