WESTBROOK- When Donna Dwyer, Mission Possible’s executive director, headed into the beginning of the fiscal year on July 1, she thought she and the popular Westbrook teen center were in good financial shape.

What a difference a month makes.

By the time she was heading into August, cutbacks from the city and the state had eaten away $50,000, a full seventh of the center’s annual budget. Now, Dwyer said, she and her staff are in a battle to keep from cutting back services that she knows Westbrook’s youth depend on.

“We’re scrambling. We’re scrambling hard,” Dwyer said.

Dwyer stressed that she had no ill will toward the city, which still gives the center $40,000 per year in support, but that’s $10,000 less than what she thought she would be getting. And the state Department of Health and Human Services, in a flurry of budget cuts, eliminated all 17 after-school programs it supported statewide, including Mission Possible.

That cost the center $40,000, leading Dwyer and Tina Burns, Mission Possible’s program administrative coordinator and the center’s only other full-time employee, to cancel vacations, take cuts in pay, and work overtime to make up the losses.

The center has been catering to Westbrook’s 10- to 18-year-olds for the past 14 years, offering everything from free meals to just a place to hang out that isn’t a street corner.

Some local donors are reaching out to help. James Tranchemontagne, owner of the Frog and Turtle restaurant, has put up a Facebook page describing an ongoing effort, hoping to raise $5,000 by Sept. 1.

“I think we’re going to be pretty close to hitting it,” he said.

Tranchemontagne said he has served on the center’s board of directors in the past, and has gone back to the center more recently to offer cooking classes to the teens. Tranchemontagne said he has always been a strong supporter of the center’s work for the city’s underprivileged youth.

“If you’re ever going to break the cycle of poverty, you have to start with the kids,” he said.

Tranchemontagne said he is donating $10 gift certificates to anyone who donates $50 to the center. For a $300 donation, Tranchemontagne offers a four-course dinner for four with wine.

Dwyer said many private businesses frequently donate to the center, but she was particularly touched by Tranchemontagne’s efforts.

“To put on a fundraiser, where it really hits his pocket, is a great thing,” she said.

On Tuesday afternoon, the center’s common area was busy, with youths playing pool, ping-pong, using computers, and playing with an interactive exercise video game. Among them was Anca Postolachu, 13, of Westbrook. She said the center is a good place, especially during the summer, for kids like her to find something productive to do.

“At home, I’d just sleep all the time,” she said. “This gives me an excuse to come outside.”

Postolachu also said she likes the social aspect. She said she “sometimes” makes friends there, but mostly she just likes the active atmosphere, where there always seems to be other people around.

“I don’t like to be alone,” she said.

Dwyer said the center services about 50-70 kids a day, many of whom are among the city’s underprivileged.

“We definitely specialize in youth who are at-risk,” she said.

Dwyer said the center is also looking to some of its partner organizations for guidance. One of the center’s largest partners is the United Way of Greater Portland.

“We’re obviously concerned,” Carter Friend, United Way’s senior vice president of community impact, said of the cuts to the center.

Friend noted that Mission Possible isn’t alone. The United Way has a number of partner organizations and centers like Mission Possible, Friend said, and all of them are feeling the pinch of state budget cuts.

“Our entire broad range of services is receiving cuts,” he said.

Friend said the most obvious answer is for organizations like the center to cut back on programs, but these days so many organizations are finding that’s already been done.

“They have, for some time now, cut themselves to the bone,” he said.

Friend said the United Way has worked with Mission Possible in the past by offering training for staff members, and United Way is discussing with Dwyer and other center staffers ways to make the center work more efficiently so that it can do more with less.

“We’re still having those conversations,” he said.

The United Way is preparing for its annual fall fund drive. Mission Possible receives United Way funding every year, and Friend said, he hopes it could receive more. The United Way drive, he said, remains successful year after year, even in tough economic times.

“We live in an incredibly generous community,” he said.

And the center also has volunteers. Dwyer said the center logged nearly 4,900 hours in the past year from volunteers alone. She said so far no programs have been affected, and she is doing everything she can to keep it that way.

“We haven’t turned any kids away, and I’m determined that that’s not going to happen,” she said.

The Mission Possible Teen Center in Westbrook offers a safe place for local kids to get together. Here, Jeremiah Elien, 10, of Westbrook, takes a shot at pool.