A POPULAR family centre may have to cut its opening hours after revealing a £50,000 funding deficit – just months after celebrating its 25th anniversary.

Managers at the Donnington Doorstep Family Centre, off Donnington Bridge Road, need £260,000 a year to continue providing advice and support to about 18,000 parents and young people each year.

Funds come from Oxford City Council, Oxfordshire County Council and grants from trusts.

But manager Anna Thorne said the recession had left the centre struggling to win charitable funding.

She said: “We’re facing massive financial challenges again this year and we have no resources and no reserves to fall back on.

“We have always survived from quarter to quarter and month to month, which isn’t good.

“The recession is making it harder to bid for money and we’re seeing that reflected in the number of donations we receive too.

“We’re really hopeful we’ll find new funding, but we have had a difficult year, and it looks like it’s only going to get harder.”

The centre, which is visited by up to 100 people every day, currently has 20 part-time staff and eight volunteers who help people with everything from potty training to overcoming domestic violence.

Ms Thorne said the centre, in Townsend Square, might have to cut its opening hours, services or the number of paid staff unless it is able to win new grants for its 2010/11 budget.

This time last year, the centre, which is currently open from 10am to 4pm Tuesdays to Fridays and 11am to 2.30pm on Saturdays, was chasing just £20,000 to secure its 2009/10 budget.

Last month, more than 60 children and parents attended the centre’s free Christmas dinner – with parents paying tribute to the “home away from home” which has provided free help, support and food to families for a quarter of a century.

The family centre was founded in 1984 by more than 30 parents who used the Donnington Playgroup.

The parents had grown concerned at the plight of one young mum who lived above a pub, and had nowhere to take her 18-month-old baby in the daytime. The playgroup had a waiting list of more than 40 children.

They were inspired to set up a wait-free drop-in centre for all parents.

East Oxford mum Jess Hall visits the Munch Club, at the Donnington Doorstep, every Thursday, where young parents get a bite to eat while receiving advice and support from each other and centre workers. The 22-year-old benefits from the sessions while her four-year-old daughter Shannon enjoys playing with friends who also use the centre.

Mrs Hall, of Iffley Road, said: “The Doorstep has been very valuable to me since I was pregnant with Shannon. I have had a lot of help and support. If I have any problems and can’t speak to anyone else, I know I can speak to the staff here.”

Ann Ellett, 67, was among the parents who worked at weekends to set up the centre – which was originally based in a temporary mobile building.

She said: “A lot of hard work went into building this.

“The staff here listen and try to do whatever they can to provide what they need. When your first child isn’t sleeping and you don’t feel human this is the place to come.”