Five out of every nine children in Lawrence Hill and Easton are living in poverty, according to staff at the government's New Deal project in Bristol, Community at Heart.

Nowhere else in the South West can you say that about two neighbouring council wards.

This is not the credit crunch. Within Lawrence Hill ward, Barton Hill, where Community at Heart is based, is on the frontline of a 10-year, £50-million war against chronic deprivation.

The economic downturn, which for is a concern elsewhere in Bristol, is another world away.

In this part of inner-city Bristol that appalling statistic, 56 per cent of youngsters touched by poverty, is just a simple, if devastating fact of life, New Deal managers say. And they should know. They have to pick up the pieces – thousands of them every year.

At the Neighbourhood Shop, in Avonvale Road, two client support workers, one of them bilingual in Somali and English, struggle to sort out problems that would defeat people in much easier circumstances.

Housing crises, unemployment and domestic violence are among the most dramatic setbacks people encounter, but the list of problems Community at Heart has to deal with is seemingly endless. Language barriers and unhelpful bureaucrats are high up.

The shop started out as a help project in one of Community at Heart's Bristol offices. It has had a place of its own for a year. But in a year's time, when its funding peters out – it costs about £60,000 a year to run – the shop could be facing a battle for survival.

It is preparing to make the case to Bristol City Council for financial support in return for services the it provides. Once community groups applied for straightforward grants, now money is tighter and they compete for the council to commission work on its behalf.

And there is plenty to do. "The shop is a lifeline to the many local residents," said Stacy Yelland, of Community at Heart. "Staff are on hand to help with anything from filling in forms to complex problems."

A large number of local people are Somali and this is reflected in the shop's clientele.

Take the case of Halimo Isman, who had called to see if the shop could help with her passport application.

Ms Isman, 40, is a refugee from Mogadishu, Somalia. She is a naturalised British citizen and needs a passport, partly as identification while she is in the UK and partly to enable her to visit friends in Holland.

But when she went to the passport office and presented her photograph, staff refused to believe it was her.

Support worker Mubarig Bodleh said: "I had a similar case a while ago, where a family applied for passports and one of the applications was held up," said Mr Bodleh. "I called the passport office and, pretty soon, they issued the boy's passport."

Fardus Ahmed fled London, where she and her young children had been living with her violent husband. The shop found her a refuge where she and her two youngsters could live in safety.

They later found the family permanent accommodation and helped them with benefits.

Through an interpreter, Mrs Ahmed told me: "Without this place I don't know what I would have done. They have saved my life."

The Shop helps many white clients, too. I met Barrie Jackson, 59, a council tenant living in a nearby block of flats.

He said: "I have learning difficulties and cannot write a letter, which makes it hard for me to get jobs.

"I come here and they do it for me."

The shop, at 212 Avonvale Road, Bristol, is open Monday to Friday 9a, to 4.30pm. It can be reached on 353 2020.