Our Mission
The Quit Alliance is a program connecting the Los Angeles LGBTQ+ community members and organizations to advance equity and health justice by promoting tobacco cessation and prevention.
Through the relationships fostered by The Quit Alliance, everyone involved will have the power to end the influence of commercial tobacco companies on our lives and communities. We will build a healthier way to live life better together.
History
The Quit Alliance was born out of a collaboration between Cedars-Sinai Cancer’s Community Outreach and Engagement (COE) Department and its LGBTQ+ Community Advisory Board (CAB), and the ArtCenter College of Design. The COE and CAB contracted ArtCenter to create a studio, where students were able to develop an innovative public health campaign addressing tobacco use in the LGBTQ+ community and assist folks in becoming tobacco free. To better understand tobacco use disparities in the LGBTQ+ community, the ArtCenter students attended worked with LGBTQ+ COE staff and community advocates.
The end result of this collaborative effort was The Quit Alliance—a resource designed to connect LGBTQ+ tobacco users with affirming community resources to support their journey to quit. The Quit Alliance incorporated tobacco control policy advocacy work in May of 2023 as part of a grant funded by the California Department of Public Health’s Tobacco Prevention Program.
Victor Crisanto (he/him)
Victor Crisanto is the Tobacco Cessation Outreach Coordinator at Cedars-Sinai Cancer, Community Outreach and Engagement and a trained Tobacco Treatment Specialist. In his role, Victor leads an LGBTQ+ Learning Collaborative with the goal to increase the availability of tobacco cessation services through capacity building by enhancing the ability of individuals, organizations, and systems to support effectively and to assist people in quitting tobacco use.
Alexandra Caro (she/they)
Alexandra Caro is a Community Health Associate at Cedar-Sinai Cancer Center’s Community Outreach and Engagement Department, focusing on projects impacting the LGBTQ+ Community. She is a certified Tobacco Treatment Specialist and supports our tobacco-cessation initiatives. In addition, she works on a California Tobacco Prevention Program (CTPP) grant focused on engaging the South Bay’s LGBTQ+ Community in advocacy for smoke-free air and multi-unit housing policies. She comes with a history of LGBTQ+ public health and advocacy work, particularly in the transgender community, and currently runs the Transgender Research Advisory Committee (T-RAC), a subset of the larger Community Advisory Board.