SACRAMENTO—Christmas morning will be filled with holiday cheer for formerly homeless women and their children, thanks to Sacramento-area residents who are donating to Women’s Empowerment’s annual Holiday Stocking Drive. The group is seeking stockings and specific fillers for infants and toddlers, children, teens and adult women. For the list of items needed, visit www.womens-empowerment.org. Residents can also make a financial donation and volunteers will then shop and fill the stockings. The average filled stocking costs $30. Items are needed by Friday, Dec. 2, at 1400 North C Street, Sacramento. For more information, contact Courtney Parmer at courtney@womens-empowerment.org or (916) 66

Taking into consideration the results of the 2011 Homeless Count conducted in January, Sacramento County would need to provide about 1,000 beds in emergency homeless shelters to ensure that everyone has a roof over their heads this winter. Thursday morning, members of the local media, Loaves and Fishes community, Sacramento Housing Alliance and the homeless community gathered for a brief press conference at Friendship Park – the heart of the program and community center for the homeless community, providing multiple services for its guests – and discussed the lack of public allocated funding for emergency homeless shelters this winter. In what is expected to be a cold and wet winter sea

On any given night in Sacramento 2,400 people are homeless in our County. According to the 2011 Sacramento Homeless Count, 955 of our neighbors are sleeping on the streets. As winter rapidly approaches, Sacramento Steps Forward (SSF) is seeking creative solutions to house those families and individuals who are forced to sleep outside due to overburdened resources. This harsh reality poses a dual risk to both the safety and health of those sleeping outside. Notably, Sacramento has been successful in reducing chronic homelessness by 50% in the last 3 years. However, family homelessness is on the rise; this year’s Homeless Count data shows an 11% increase. Loaves and Fishes, which serves mea

The start of a new school year is daunting enough for homeless children without adding the stigma of sitting down to a desk without the essential tools many of their classmates may take for granted. Volunteers of America’s Operation Backpack, which continues through July 23, aims to boost the confidence of Sacramento-area youth in need by providing new backpacks and school supplies to help them achieve academic excellence in spite of their frequently precarious living situations. The sixth-annual community drive invites the public to support these children and their families by bringing a new backpack filled with fresh school supplies to one of the more than 130 Operation Backpack drop-o