{"id":453611,"date":"2026-09-04T18:24:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-04T18:24:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/453611\/"},"modified":"2026-09-04T18:24:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-04T18:24:14","slug":"2026-change-maker-honoree-sergio-robles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/453611\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 Change Maker honoree: Sergio Robles"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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<\/a>. <\/p>\n

As a student at American River College, Sergio Robles got his first taste of community organizing when he helped coordinate buses to take local high schoolers to a college fair.<\/p>\n

He recalled seeing Sacramento County Supervisor Phil Serna and former California Senate Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg at the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t know who they were,\u201d he said. \u201cI just knew I wanted to take a photo with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The experience, he said, sparked his interest in serving the community.<\/p>\n

After an internship in Washington, D.C., Robles ended up getting a job with U.S. Rep. Ami Bera back in Elk Grove. Then he \u201ccut his teeth\u201d as a member of the Elk Grove Planning Commission before deciding to join the Army National Guard.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was always a sense of pride and duty that I wanted to be a part of, when I would go to veteran events,\u201d Robles said.<\/p>\n

On his return from training in 2022, Robles ran for the Elk Grove\u2019s City Council District 4 seat and won. During his tenure, he has pushed a program to assist first-time homebuyers with down payments for their first homes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year, we implemented it in the budget,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Changemaker Changemaker Sergio Robles, an Elk Grove city councilmember and enlisted member of the California National Guard, poses for a portrait at on Wednesday, July 8, 2026 in Sacramento. Robles serves his community through both public office and military service. PAUL KITAGAKI JR. pkitagaki@sacbee.com <\/p>\n

In the midst of the government shut-down in the autumn of 2025, Robles helped secure a large grant for the Elk Grove Food Bank. He\u2019s especially proud of the collaboration between the food bank and the nonprofit Al-Misbaah, where they provided halal meals and Thanksgiving dinners for families in an affordable housing site in his district.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t tell you the amount of joy and happiness that brought me,\u201d Robles said.<\/p>\n

At the moment, he\u2019s passionate about his work within the Latino community in the greater Sacramento area, where, along with other professionals, \u201cIt\u2019s like, hey, let\u2019s mentor the next generation. Let\u2019s empower them and make sure we\u2019re able to advocate for ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related Stories from Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Anne Ewbank<\/a><\/p>\n

The Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n

Anne Ewbank is a service journalist and food reporter for The Sacramento Bee. Previously, she worked as a writer and editor for the New York-based travel website Atlas Obscura, where she covered food and culture. A California native, she is a graduate of Occidental College and Yale University.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Sacramento Bee and Nehemiah Leaders Programs are celebrating this year’s 60 Change Makers. Join them at our…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":453612,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-453611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453611"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453611\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}