The 4th Annual Sacramento Homeless Connect event will take place this Saturday, May 21 at Sacramento City College from 10:00 am-3:00 pm. It is hosted by Sacramento Steps Forward, with support from presenting sponsor The Salvation Army. Speakers at the event include Assemblymember Roger Dickinson, Mayor Kevin Johnson and Supervisor Phil Serna. Over 1,000 homeless guests are expected; additionally the event hosts 500 community volunteers and over 60 different service providers. Project Homeless Connect is a national Best Practice model for bringing services directly to homeless folks. Started in San Francisco, it now occurs in over 150 communities across the country. Homeless Connect events

Around 80 women shuffled into the California Museum Thursday night with overflowing bags in tow. The baggage wasn't credited to a long day of shopping, but rather the beginning of a long night of swapping. The Diva Eve Clothing Swap was a eco-friendly evening of fashion, beauty and philanthropy, benefiting St. John's Shelter for Women and Children. Seventeen years ago, Clothing Swap founder Suzanne Agasi invited three close friends over for a wardrobe exchange experiment. Guests cleaned out their closets and poured their belongings into Agasi's Walnut Creek studio apartment. The evening was informal and intimate as the women picked through each other's clothing and donated the leftovers

The Bosom Buddy Bra Recyclers are giving bras a second home. Founded in October 2008, the organization collects used bras from women around the world to donate to homeless shelters and transition houses. If the bras can't be used, they're recycled and given a new life in a different form. The idea for the project came when Elaine Birks-Mitchell was talking to a friend who worked at a shelter. As they talked about what the women needed, the subject of bras came up. "They never get enough," Birks-Mitchell said. "People don't think to donate bras." Birks-Mitchell said the response to Bosom Buddy has been unbelievable. The project has received 20,000 bras in the first quarter of 2010 alone.

Thursday morning, journalist Lisa Ling, members of the City Council and the homeless and formerly-homeless community joined Mayor Kevin Johnson in launching the "Sacramento Steps Forward" initiative. A crowd of several hundred waved blue initiative flags and cheered as Johnson announced his goal "to end homelessness and focus on permanent housing." He applauded permanent housing shelters such as Mercy Housing, Turning Point and Martin Luther King Jr. Village, 3900 47th Avenue, where the launch was held. Johnson said the goal of Sacramento Steps Forward is to provide 2,400 "decent and affordable" permanent housing units over the next three years. That would nearly quadruple the amount of

 A recent fishing derby pulled in a truckload of clothes and cash for St. John's Shelter for Women and Children in Sacramento. The sixth annual Gone Fishin' Derby held recently at Granite Regional Park had folks of all ages showing up with their fishing gear in hand. "Approximately 250 kids and 100 adults attended the event," says Tammy T. Nguyen, Community Relations Coordinator for The Hoyt Company. "We gave away almost $2,000 worth of fishing equipment, not including the gift baskets we received from SunSweet, a trip to Donner Lake, and the gift certificates from Squeeze Inn." Derby co-sponsors were HDR|The Hoyt Company, BLT Enterprises,Power Inn Alliance, Granite Park Partners, Jacks