Kimberly Bankston-Lee and Twila Laster, founders of Saving Our Legacy (The SOL Project), a partner of Heluna Health, were named as two of the Sacramento Bee’s 2024-2025 Top Black Change Makers. On April 4, Bankston-Lee and Laster were honored at the Unity Change Makers Celebration at Sacramento State alongside the 2024-2025 Change Makers cohort including the top 20 Asian American Pacific Islander, Latino, and Black Change Makers.
Twila Laster (far left), Kimberly Bankston-Lee (front row, fourth from left).
The SOL Project has been a partner of Heluna Health for nearly two decades, and advocates for healthy, smoke free communities for African Americans and other populations who suffer disproportionately as a result of social conditions and tobacco use.
Bankston-Lee and Laster founded The SOL Project in 2007 to address how tobacco is marketed in Black communities. Bankston-Lee shared that she was motivated by seeing the ways African Americans were being targeted by the tobacco industry.
“It really made me angry and fueled my desire to continue the work,” she said.
Since discovering her passion for community health and well-being, Laster has established a 28-year career advocating for the health of African Americans and underserved communities.
“This work opened up an avenue to realize where my talents were,” she said.
Today, The SOL Project serves 14 Northern California counties, working with restaurants, bars and nightclubs to enact smoke free policies in their outdoor dining areas, advocating for policy changes to reduce tobacco sales and consumption, providing resources to quit smoking, and addressing the social determinants of health in underserved communities.
Heluna Health congratulates Bankston-Lee and Laster, and is proud to support the important work of The SOL Project.
Learn more about the 2024-2025 Top 20 Black Change Makers here and click here to read more about the Unity Change Makers Celebration.
