The Citizens Advice Bureau has been giving free, confidential and impartial advice to people in Stratford for over 20 years but that could soon come to an end, warns co-ordinator Bernice Mitchell.
Bernice says unless they can increase the number of volunteers from the current pool of nine, they will soon have to consider closing their doors for good.
"We need to have two people rostered on for each three hour shift, and just with people taking leave or being off sick, we are already running at the absolute minimum," she says.
They have only managed to keep their doors open for so long thanks to what Bernice describes as "the generosity of our volunteers, who take on extra shifts to cover those gaps", something she says just isn't sustainable.
Bernice is hoping that the new year will bring some new volunteers to help keep Stratford people informed, and says that potential volunteers simply need to be able to commit to one three hour shift a week (between 10am and 1pm) and be willing to learn as well as having some basic computer skills.