It's a life of worry, and Skeik is reaching out for help.

She's found it on the second floor of the municipal building. There, the Rev. Lydia Morales has begun a new program to assist borough women like Skeik who are in need of food, clothing, jobs, medical care, English classes, or domestic-violence counseling.

She wanted to offer those services locally, she said, because many women have had to go to Paterson or Passaic for help.

"I felt there was a big need in our city," Morales said about Prospect Park, where, according to the 2000 census, the median household income is $46,434. "It's a small town, but there's a lot of poverty. A lot of the women are poor, going through difficult times, or suffering abuse."

Promise Community Development Corp., as her program is called, is a private, non-profit organization Morales started with a group of borough women and the blessings of Mayor Will Kubofcik and the Borough Council.

The borough is allowing Morales use of the municipal building three times a week, until she can get funds to open her own office.

Promise's mission is to help struggling women and families by providing free counseling, support, and training.

Morales and other volunteers have done their best to make the second-floor municipal room welcoming and cheerful, covering tables with purple tablecloths that Morales said represent "royalty." They gave each of the handful of women who came in small gift packs of toiletries, along with jars of peanut butter, dried milk, and canned vegetables.

Carmela Mariluz, 58, who suffered a stroke that caused her to lose her job as a cook because she couldn't work fast enough, was also seeking a job. Morales referred her to Nydia Mora, a North Haledon women who is starting a house-cleaning business and plans to employ a crew of 10 women.

"I know what it like to be poor," said Mora, who recalled once drinking sugar water during a three-week stretch when she was out of work. She went on to get a beautician's license and run her own business, she said.

Skeik spoke with Mora, too, although Skeik said she preferred baby sitting children in her home to housecleaning.

After doing "intake," in which volunteers asked each women about her needs, Morales spoke to the group about the services Promise offers: Once a month, a Clifton doctor will provide free medical exams to women at the municipal building, and Morales will also refer women to Passaic Beth Israel Hospital for free gynecological exams and mammograms.

Skeik and Mariluz both said they'd be back on Saturday for the English classes the program offers for a charge of $5 for materials.

Morales has worked for 11 years at the Maranatha Family Christian Center, a non-denominational evangelical community in Passaic, and is also a former assistant teacher in Paterson. She has spent the last three years in full-time ministry and outreach, and is trained in domestic-violence counseling. She also has life experience in what her clients face.

"I have a very powerful testimony," she said. "I was abused physically and verbally as a child. ... My parents were illiterate."

She emphasizes that her work in Prospect Park is secular and open to women of all faiths. Promise provides essential referrals to agencies like St. Paul's food pantry and Star of Hope Ministries in Paterson that offer food and clothing (most food pantries will not provide food without an agency referral). Morales has also been running a small food pantry and clothes closet out of her basement at home.

The borough's involvement began when Morales approached Councilwoman Esther Perez several months ago to discuss the idea of gathering women together to provide help and support.

Now, her admirers include the mayor.

"Like its name and its mission," Kubofcik said, the non-profit "brings promise and hope to people where there is little hope."