By admin 
The Sacramento Bee and Nehemiah Leaders Programs are celebrating this year’s 60 Change Makers. Join them at our gala at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 13 at the Grand Sheraton in downtown Sacramento. Buy tickets at sacramentochangemakers.com.
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Tak Allen was always taught to give back to her community. Allen grew up in Sacramento as one of seven children, but when her father developed a drug addiction, she said the community wasn’t there for her family.
“I remember watching my parents overcome all these things that really affected our lives in a way that makes absolutely no sense,” Allen said through interpreter Lorie Sims. “And to come back from something that people don’t come back from, and to rebuild and restructure.”
So as an adult and a mother of five, Allen has made it her mission to change the way a community responds to young people in need, both through her work as president of the nonprofit Community, Resource, Education Pathways and as California Democratic Party Black Caucus parliamentarian, advising its members on rules of order and bylaws.
CRE Pathways tries to help youth in Sacramento get a foothold in public service and industry careers. Allen recalls one young woman who got a full-time job at La Familia Counseling Center, a counseling and outreach agency for high-risk youth, after spending a year with CRE Pathways.
“I have just so many moments where we cry with them. But then those celebrations at the end we get to have? That’s my favorite part,” Allen said.
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As a Deaf person, Allen is also well aware of how many obstacles Deaf children face in Sacramento.
“If you think youth have it bad in that city, be a deaf child, right? Or be a deaf Black child, or be deaf trans, be deaf anything,” she said.
But no amount of nonprofit organizing can make change without looking at issues systemically.
“It’s mostly just running into those systemically designed barriers where we’re like, oh, they fell through the crack. Nope, nope. We created a canyon and pushed them in it,” Allen said.
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This story was originally published September 22, 2026 at 6:57 AM.