Abbey gets $5 million grant to expand local child care capacity
- First Steps Centers
- May 9, 2024
- 1 min read
by Jack Figge
OSV News
ATCHISON (OSV News) — The state of Kansas awarded St. Benedict’s Abbey here a nearly $5 million grant to help fund the monastery’s proposal to partner with a local childhood learning center and increase much-needed child care facilities for the surrounding community.
Founded in 1857, the monastery has dedicated its mission to serving the educational and pastoral needs of the Atchison community.
“God opened the door to partner with a child care provider,” Dwight Stephenson, executive director of operations and finance for the monastery, told OSV News. “It’s not that we went out thinking that child care is what we want to be a part of, but the opportunity emerged to partner with a child care organization, and so we took it.”
In 2021, the abbey purchased 160 acres during an Atchison County tax sale. The property is adjacent to land already owned by the monastery and is the site of a former juvenile detention center that has existing structures which the monastery hopes to renovate.
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