VISION
City of Values Initiative (COVI) is an initiative of The Values Foundation (TVF), based in Washington, D.C., whose mission is to help make values more visible in all spheres of society (Government, Business, Education, Media, Art, Sport and Entertainment) to positively influence cities and impact lives.
COVI seeks to serve Mayors by connecting, inspiring and celebrating values to make their communities more kind, generous, grateful, optimistic, respectful, honest, and courageous.
COVI focuses on 12 timeless values which impact people’s day to day decisions:
GRATITUDE, FORGIVENESS, RESPECT, OPTIMISM, INTEGRITY, PATIENCE,
LOVE, HONESTY, COMMITMENT, COURAGE, KINDNESS, GENEROSITY
COVI will intentionally connect leaders across the various community sectors (e.g. government, business, education, the arts, etc.) with others who are involved with similar initiatives around the world. COVI is currently entering a beta testing phase with a scheduled launch in November 2018.
AWARDS
Participating Cities in the COVI will adopt the twelve values for a minimum of 3 years. Every month an event will take place for the value of the month. Gratitude in January, Forgiveness in February, Respect in March, etc.
The twelve values will be creatively shared in ways that are relevant for the community of the City. The Mayor will celebrate and award the best practices of private citizens/ organizations/institutions that already are living those values in the City. The award will make visible and celebrate what already exists, hopefully inspiring more citizens to follow the City “standard”.
LOCAL AWARD
Citizens will be encouraged to create a more kind, generous, honest community and celebrate what is good in it. The best story of the month, selected by the Mayor and a local Values
Ambassador(s) appointed by the Mayor, will be given a City Branded Value Award designed and produced by TVF and presented by the Mayor. The Program Executive from TVF will work with the local Values Ambassador in the City to facilitate social media coverage.
GLOBAL AWARD
Participating Cities will celebrate their stories of values by competing with other cities for annual global awards. These awards, based on social media views of YouTube videos produced by the cities will be awarded by TVF and will carry a $1,000 stipend and will be awarded monthly. Winning videos will be hosted on TVF website.
City On-Boarding:
The TVF Program Executive will oversee the on-boarding process for participating cities. Mayors will designate the appropriate staff person to coordinate on behalf of the City and work with the Program Executive to identify local volunteers to serve as Values Ambassadors on behalf of the Mayor.
The Program Executive will oversee the establishment of “city pages” on TVF’s website, linked to the respective City websites. The city pages will host the relevant information and celebratory content as it relates to the stories of values in the cities.
JOY, HAPPINESS AND HEALTH OF EVERY COMMUNITY
TVF believes that the twelve core values are intimately related to joy, happiness and health in every community. The values are universal and capable of uniting instead of dividing. The values are unchanging because they are unaffected by history, geography or short-lived trends. They are sustainable because they guarantee long-term personal and social development. And finally, the twelve values are therapeutic because they have numerous positive effects on our body and mind, proving that we were born to be courageous, kind, respectful, loved, and forgiven…
TVF embraces the motto: “I’m starting with me.”
The Pocket Values Booklets are available in several languages.
The Values Foundation was awarded 501c3 status in the U.S in February 2018.
TVF exists to creatively rediscover, promote and encourage living the true core values of life, in some ways similar to William Wilberforce’s “Reformation of Manners” in the 18th century.
Le Ali Morali identified the twelve core values and published booklets that define and illustrate the values. These booklets are available to participating cities.
STRATEGIC PLAN
What The Mayor Does:
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Nominates a person in the administration to be the point person of the initiative.
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Nominates a local volunteer(s) to serve as the for the initiative to work with TVF Program Executive for on-boarding, creative, and social media initiatives.
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Presents awards and participate in media interviews.
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Evaluates further optional values initiatives presented by the Program Executive such as those in Education, Sports, Business, the Arts, and with Sister Cities.
What the Values Foundation Program Executive Does:
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Helps with the identification of the Values Ambassador.
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Oversees the City on-boarding process with the Values Ambassador.
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Provides a monthly suggested for the City.
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Coordinates with the Values Ambassador on generative ideas to celebrate values in the City and produce stories on videos.
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Supports the Mayor and Values Ambassador with the planning of awards events.
What the Ambassadors of Values Do:
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Support and coordinate with the Mayor and the Program Executive on generative ideas to celebrate values in the City.
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Support the Mayor with the planning of awards events.
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Help with the identification of the best story of the month to be awarded.
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Help to coordinate the creation of the three-minute video for the story of the month produced by the City.
What TVF Does:
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Provides participating cities with the core definitions of the values.
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Oversees the global values awards program.
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Manages values pages for the participating cities.
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Designs City branded medals and global medals for values winners.
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Funds annual stipends for global values winners.
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Provides access to the Values booklets produced by Le Ali Morali.
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Plans to host periodic conferences to help connect mayors with officials and business leaders in other participating cities.