Livingston earned the top "Healthy Town" designation from the New Jersey Health Care Quality Institute for 2025 — recognition for a year spent showing up for residents in ways that don't always make headlines: mental health workshops, walking programs, and outreach to seniors who might otherwise go unnoticed.

The award recognized work by the Mayor's Wellness Campaign committee across three areas: mental health, physical activity and walkability, and youth programming. Livingston was one of a record 45 New Jersey communities to earn the designation in 2025.

It started in 2024, when Livingston was chosen as one of just 11 communities statewide for a Walmart-funded grant through the NJ League of Municipalities, aimed at mental health initiatives and preventing intimate partner violence and substance use. Then-Mayor Al Anthony accepted the grant, saying at the time, "We look forward to being able to provide even more health and wellness programming for our residents with this grant. We'll be using the funds from the grant in a variety of ways, including providing mental health workshops, mental health first aid training, programs for reducing social isolation for older adults in the community, and youth education with an impaired driving simulator."

The committee, which includes Health Department educator Jessica Kelly, turned that promise into a full slate of free programming throughout 2025: mental health first aid training, an indoor summer walking program, suicide prevention training, an adult mental health course, presentations on teen drug and alcohol use, a workshop on how technology and social media affect mental health, and direct outreach to homebound residents — the kind of quiet check-ins that can mean the most to someone isolated.

Katie Bisaha of the Quality Institute said grants like this one help strengthen community bonds and improve mental health literacy — not just treating problems after they surface, but building the kind of connection that helps prevent isolation in the first place.

To receive the Healthy Town designation, municipalities have to show they actually researched community health needs, maintain an active committee, and deliver programs that respond to those needs directly. Livingston formally joined the statewide Mayor's Wellness Campaign in 2025 and plans to keep the programming going. The campaign itself has connected more than 430 New Jersey communities with public health tools and support since 2006.

While Livingston Philanthropies Inc. volunteers take their summer break, Rev. Dan Martian of the Presbyterian Church of Livingston is accepting donations at 271 West Northfield Road (use the side office door) to support families living below the poverty line — a reminder that the work of looking out for neighbors never really takes a season off.