(KAIR)--Details are released regarding the planned use of the just under $5 million awarded to Atchison's St. Benedict's Abbey as part of the goal to increase childcare statewide.

The Atchison apportionment comes through $28 million made available in Capital Projects Fund Accelerator grants, administered through the Kansas Children- Cabinet and Trust Fund, to a total of seven Kansas communities for the purpose of what a state release says is to "build or renovate multi-purpose community facilities that create new licensed child care slots; provide access to high-speed internet; and house programs that facilitate work, education, and health care monitoring."

In Atchison, such services are expected to be available by 2025 at the First Steps Childhood Learning Center, which will be located on north Atchison property, at 1926 North 2nd Street, which once housed the Atchison Juvenile Correctional Facility. The release from the Kansas Governor's office says the Atchison facility will include a career closet, care coordination services, and 24-hour child care, while creating 140 child care slots.

According to a release from the Abbey, the learning center is being opened through a partnership between the Abbey and First Steps of Atchison, with the two, last December, jointly filing the now successful application for the $5 million grant.

St. Benedict's Abbey purchased the property through an Atchison County Tax Sale in April 2021.

Abbot James Albers, OSB, superior at the Abbey, in the release, says when the purchase of the property was made, it was the Abbey's "intent to find uses for the land and buildings that would benefit the City of Atchison as well as Atchison County,” adding that it's the Abbey's belief that "investing in the futures of children by partnering with First Steps is one of the best ways of stewarding this gift we have received while promoting the dignity of the human person.”

The release explains that the Abbey's renovation of buildings on the property will begin this coming spring, with work to last approximately one year.
It was when the location served as a youth correctional home, from 1965 to 2008, that the buildings to be renovated were constructed,

The goal currently set for the center to begin providing childcare services is late spring 2025.