A Kingston charity providing an outreach support service for young families in distress could be forced to close.

Home-Start Kingston has 30 families on its waiting list but few volunteers and only enough funds to keep going until April 2005.

The charity has been running for 10 years and needs around £55,000 a year to provide a support and befriending service for families with at least one child under the age of five.

Kingston's Primary Care Trust (PCT), from where most of the families are referred, provided £35,000 annually until 18 months ago when it no longer had the cash.

This resulted in the loss of a drop-in centre and play scheme at the charity's base in Siddeley House in Canbury Park Road. Kingston Council continues to provide £20,000 funding each year.

Most of Kingston's Home-Start families are suffering from isolation and mental health problems.

Six trained volunteers with parenting experience provide home visits to nine families. Some 30 volunteers used to help out.

But now the charity is desperately applying to trust funds to secure £90,000, which would allow it to run the service over the next three years. This would sit alongside council money and other fundraising profits.

As part of a major recruitment drive for volunteers, posters and letters have been sent out to the Kingston Volunteer Bureau, schools and libraries.

Karen Penny, Home-Start Kingston co-ordinator, said: "No other charity provides this sort of support in Kingston. Some families may get over their difficulties but others could deteriorate.

"We step in before social services have to get involved.

"We have trouble securing funds because of Kingston's perceived affluence, but there are people living in extreme deprivation."

Last week a public health expert revealed deprived communities in Kingston suffer worse health than in perceived poorer boroughs such as Hackney.

One volunteer, who wanted to remain anonymous, joined Home-Start Kingston in 1999, after receiving help from Home-Start in the Midlands, when her epileptic husband was hospitalised and their newborn baby was born underweight.

She said: "Volunteers are not do-gooders. There are times when I feel humbled by how others are coping. The ultimate reward is when the family doesn't need you anymore."

Home-Start is one of the Mayor of Kingston Councillor Ed Naylor's chosen charities.

If you can help call Home-Start Kingston on 020 8296 0654 or email home-start-kingston@blueyonder.

co.uk.

rclifford@london.newsquest.co.uk