First-class citizens. Always.

In the mid-1970s, Broadway resident Jane Stevens began a Sunday school class for youths with disabilities — individuals who for various societal reasons had been excluded from attending church. Through the next 15 years, the class would be forced to relocate to another church when the host church felt they no longer had excess available space. At one point the Sunday school class met on the second floor of a church, though some class participants used wheelchairs, as this was the only available space.

In the late 1980s, Ms. Stevens stated her intention to donate a parcel of land if it was used to "create a place where people with disabilities were treated like first-class people." This was the seed that eventually grew into the Stevens Center.

In 1989, the Stevens Foundation was created as a nonprofit organization to accept a donation from Ms. Stevens of 16 acres on Kelly Drive. The Board of Directors met regularly to discuss how the property would be used. Ideas included building a residential or vocational center, but eventually focused on creating an educational/recreational center. Construction began on the facility in 2001, and its dedication occurred in May 2002.