a non-profit, comprehensive,
community mental health service

MFS History

Monadnock Family Services has been reaching out to those in need of emotional support or guidance in our community for more than a century. Originally known as Associated Charities, the ancestor of today's agency was founded by Mrs. Alice Batchelder and a group of her friends on September 29, 1905, in a one-room house that was used as a casino on the Batchelders' property at 91 Court Street in Keene.  Associated Charities brought together local women’s clubs, churches, and the Humane Society for the purpose of “…..relieving distress and diminishing pauperism, encouraging thrift, self-dependence and industry through friendly intercourse, advice and sympathy…”

For the next 30 years, the group worked to aid local families by providing a range of services and raised $6,000 during the Great Depression to help Keene families affected by unemployment.

By the 1950s, Associated Charities’ efforts began to focus its work on personal and family counseling.  In 1958, Associated Charities merged with the Keene Mental Health Association and the larger, stronger organization was renamed the Family Services Association. It was then that the group began to extend services to families in the Peterborough area.

In 1967, the Family Services Association was approached by the State of New Hampshire and asked to become a mental health clinic for those patients leaving the New Hampshire State Hospital. After two years of providing that service, the agency changed its name to Monadnock Family and Mental Health Services, ultimately shortened to Monadnock Family Services in 1987.

During the last quarter century, Monadnock Family Services has continued to provide individual and family counseling to the residents of the Monadnock area and operate programs for the State of New Hampshire. It has expanded its programs and services to include parent education, family support, youth development, services for veterans and seniors, drug abuse prevention and treatment, emergency and mental health acute care, mediation services, and individual and group counseling and therapy for individuals and families struggling with mental illness.

The agency has grown from that small volunteer group of women in the early 1900s to its first social workers hired in the 1960s and now employs 230 counselors, mentors, and staff members. MFS now touches the lives of nearly 7,500 Monadnock community members each year through its programs and locations in Keene, Peterborough, Antrim, Jaffrey, Walpole, and Winchester.