Emily’s Place

Emily’s Place is a confidential safe shelter for individuals and their children fleeing from domestic or sexual violence.

***If you are in need of immediate shelter, please call 603.668.2299 24/7 and speak with a REACH Crisis Services advocate***

The Basics

Emily’s Place is an emergency shelter program where individuals and their children can experience supportive community living while rebuilding their lives after domestic and/or sexual violence.

Emily’s Place is at a confidential location.

We have support available for clients trying to maintain substance free lives, however, alcohol and drugs are not permitted in the house.

Advocates have been trained to assist you with locating community services. Please call REACH Crisis Services at 603.668.2299 for other emergency shelter and housing resources.

How do I get assessed for shelter?

1. If you need to get into shelter TODAY, call the crisis line at 603.668.2299. You will be asked to give your name and a safe phone number so an advocate can call you back.
2. During business hours, Monday-Friday 9:00AM – 4:30PM, you can also go directly to REACH Crisis Services in the YWCA New Hampshire building at 72 Concord Street, Manchester, NH and meet with an advocate in person.

How long can I stay at Emily’s Place? 

Emily’s Place emergency shelter program is designed to assist you with regaining independence as quickly as possible. There is no formal ‘length of stay’; different people have different needs, so this is unique to each person. Emily’s Place is not transitional housing or permanent housing,

Emily’s Story

Emily’s story was discovered while researching at the Schlesinger Library. A letter dated 10 of November 1882 was found; in this letter, a woman named Alice wrote to her friend Katie:

“My Dear Katie,

My Husband read in the able and reliable paper, the Appleton Crescent, this article an hour ago.  As soon as my duties would permit, I hastened to peruse the same. Judge of my surprise and horror when I read the following:

“When Mrs. Rudolph Hines defeated her husband at croquet Sunday afternoon, at Woodbury, NJ, he kicked her with a heavy boot.  She became unconscious and died shortly thereafter.”

“Now although I was never on terms of intimacy with Mrs. Rudolph Hines, indeed this is the first time I ever knew there is such a woman, and just when I have been made acquainted with the fact, it appears she has been kicked out of existence.  Still my feelings go out in sympathy to beat her husband at croquet.”

Mrs. Rudolph Hines was Emily.  It is in her honor that YWCA Crisis Services chose to name our shelter program.  As a women who experienced abuse, Emily faced a lifetime of violence.  She was well aware of the fact that if she dared challenge her husband, she would be the target of his violence.  Still, Emily chose to challenge her husband that day and in doing so she was challenging the violence and oppression of all survivors.

She was killed by her husband, but Emily has transmitted her strength and courage to woman who never met her.  Strength and courage is given to Alice, to Katie, and to each individual who finds themselves on the steps of Emily’s Place. We have named our domestic violence shelter in her honor.  She is not forgotten.