About This Project

The Truth About Flavor is a youth leadership and media production pilot program in South Central Los Angeles about flavored cigarillos. A collaboration between Legacy, Public Matters, L. A. Freewaves, and students from Community Health Advocates School (CHAS) at Augustus Hawkins High School, the project seeks to cultivate a cadre of youth health advocates who are motivated and poised to inform their community about the dangers of flavored cigarillos.

LEGACY is the largest non-profit public health organization in the nation devoted specifically to tobacco control. It has a history of producing game-changing public health initiatives like the award-winning truth youth smoking prevention campaign.

FREEWAVES is a Los Angeles media arts organization that brings media art to the public in innovative ways. It provides additional project support for THE TRUTH ABOUT FLAVOR MYTH-BUSTERS as part of its LONG LIVE LA! Program and will be screening them in health clinics throughout Los Angeles County, reaching an audience of over 300,000 viewers.

COMMUNITY HEALTH ADVOCATES SCHOOL (CHAS) at AUGUSTUS HAWKINS HIGH SCHOOL is one of three distinct small schools on the Augustus Hawkins High School campus. It nurtures, inspires and empowers the future social workers and community health advocates of South Central Los Angeles.

MIGNONNE GUY, PH.D. is an Assistant Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University. Her research has included small to large-scale health services and outcomes research studies involving multiple stakeholders as well as applying the principles and practices of community-engaged research in cancer and chronic disease prevention. Her research agenda centers on three complementary areas of cancer prevention in multi-ethnic and underserved populations: 1) understanding socio-cultural, behavioral, and structural/institutional factors that present barriers to the prevention of cancer, 2) culturally tailored interventions, and 3) improving access to and utilization of health care services by increasing the reach of evidence-based practices through dissemination research. Her work utilizes mixed-methods and often incorporates community-engaged research approaches.