City Honors Couple for Commitment to Children's Causes

Jana Livings (left) and John Livings (right) with their certificates of recognition from the City of Los Angeles. Photo by Sarah Livings-Walsh.

Media Contact: Analisa Venolia, revolutionreportradio@gmail.com

Jana and John Livings of Woodland Hills were honored earlier this month with a certificate of recognition from the City of Los Angeles for their decades-long dedication to supporting the youth of Los Angeles. 

For more than two decades, the Livings have worked to better the lives of children in the San Fernando Valley, whether through running the Learning Enrichment After-School Program, LEAP, or through generous donations. The Livings also received a certificate from the city in 2013 in recognition of the enrichment LEAP provided to the community.

“Children need proper educational and emotional support,” said Jana, explaining why she and her husband spent so much of their lives working with kids. “It’s important—they’re what keeps our society going.”

The Livings began their charitable work when their daughter, Sarah Livings-Walsh, founder of community station Handball Court Radio, started elementary school in 2002. When picking up their daughter and bringing her snacks after school, they noticed that other children were hungry. The Livings decided to bring  snacks for all the children, which then led them to create an after-school program for what is now Lockhurst Drive Charter Elementary. 

Despite beginning as simple after-school care, the Livings soon transformed the program into LEAP, which offered classes with options including karate, dance and a homework club.

Over the years, LEAP expanded to more than 25 schools with dozens of employees. The Livings hired the parents of their students when they could in order to provide families with another way to spend time together. If families could not afford to participate in the program, the Livings provided scholarships, ensuring that all who wanted to participate were able to do so. LEAP closed in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

However, the Livings charitable efforts did not end. In the succeeding years, the couple donated so much equipment and toys to the Woodland Hills Recreation Center that the center could not keep everything. The donations were also distributed to numerous schools in the area. These donations sparked the presentation of this second certificate of recognition.

“We didn’t do it to be recognized,” said John. “If we were to list the reasons why, that’d be absolutely at the bottom of the list. We did it because it’s the right thing to do.”