Valley of the Sun United Way and Mesa United Way are partnering for a special Project Connect event April 11 at Broadway Christian Church, 7335 E. Broadway Road, Mesa.

Without a place to live, and carrying little more than a small bag of clothes, Jennifer Allanson rode the free Orbit bus in Tempe, unsure of where she would turn to next.

The City of Mesa is among local municipalities looking for volunteers to literally hit the streets to help the less fortunate this month.

Three acoustic guitar players spread out along Mill Avenue and strummed melodies Friday night. In most aspects, it was a typical weekend night for the buskers, but this time they didn’t have to compete with amplified bands or drumming to be heard.

A New Leaf, which provides shelter and behavioral health services for children and families in need, is accepting donations of nonperishable food and grocery gift cards through July. Donations will be distributed to La Mesita Family Homeless Shelter, the East Valley Men’s Center Shelter, and Faith House and Autumn House domestic violence shelters and youth residential programs.

A New Leaf is moving forward with the La Mesita Project, an affordable, supportive housing initiative in Mesa that will include 80 mixed-use apartments and 16 emergency homeless shelter units with onsite services, community space and light-rail transportation adjacent to the property.

Mesa is kicking off its sixth-annual hydration donation campaign on Monday to provide water to the homeless and unsheltered. The city asks residents to donate water at several locations through Sept. 14. The United Food Bank will distribute the water to several nonprofits. More than 220,000 bottles were donated last year.

As American flags are removed from the graves of military veterans and fallen heroes in the weeks following Memorial Day, a set of keys was handed this week to an organization that helps veterans who are down on their luck.

Tempe Mayor Hugh Hallman will participate in the Lodestar Home Run on Sunday at the Phoenix Zoo to bring attention to the issue of homelessness in the Valley. This year’s honorary chair, Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton is also running. The event starts at 7 a.m.

After Tom Steinhagen spent last weekend “homeless” — living in a car and fasting for 80 hours to raise awareness of homeless veterans, while accepting donations of blue jeans and cash — one might think that he would be taking it easy this weekend.

A Mesa man soon will begin an "on the street" experience aimed at bringing awareness to the plight of homeless veterans while accepting donations of cash and blue jeans for a nonprofit organization that helps them.

Tom Joseph did not want to stand idly by as the Corona del Sol football team's playoff chances went up in smoke.

The night's first play from scrimmage sealed the night.

Score quick. And hold.

By Edward Carifio

Highland thought it could pull off a little trickery, but there's a reason Corona del Sol spends nearly one-third of its three-hour practices on special teams.

Part biopic, part concert film and all crowd pleaser, "Justin Bieber: Never Say Never" is a big, glossy celebration of the musical phenom that knows exactly what it needs to do to send its target audience of 'tween girls into a tizzy of giddy screams.