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The Vision
Winning European Capital of Culture for 2008 has brought massive investment to the region, causing people from the UK and all over the world take a more positive look at Merseyside.
Building on the optimism created by the 2008 accolade, Capital of Caring will focus on encouraging an ongoing positive change in the way people, organisations and communities develop, interact and collaborate.
Our aim is that long after 2008, we will still be Capital of Caring.
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...in an urban region of over one million, just 1% of the population took one extra caring option each day!
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 ...the caring option was really simple for anybody to do.. The people of Merseyside have a strong sense of where they live and who they are. Most would be proud to say "this is one of the most caring places in the world."
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...we could tap into that generous, collaborative and caring behaviour that we usually reserve for times of special need, like national emergencies and annual appeals to help children and medical research.
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...we came to expect demonstrations of caring as part of our everyday life, ingrained into the culture.
The benefits could be far reaching.
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Capital of Caring is an innovative and unique programme for encouraging attitudinal change in large, multicultural urban communities.
It's a programme that promises to develop, in a lasting way, a positive change in the way people, organisations and communities develop, interact and collaborate.
Simple though this concept may be, it needs a very special and rare set of circumstances for it to be viable... circumstances we have found right now, in Liverpool and Merseyside.
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Harmony, collaboration, happiness and efficiency will be visible in communities and organisations where the people share a common set of values, such as Honesty, Integrity, teamwork, truth, fair play, justice.
 These may be composed into a 'value statement'. Our value statement is simple...
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Ask any successful organisation about their mission. They may point at the words they have pinned on their walls, the words that are seen every day by staff, partners, visitors and clients... words that are meaningful and evocative... measurable and challenging.
 Capital of Caring has a mission and, just as for the Value Statement, our mission is simple.
Dave Antrobus, former Liverpool City Council executive member for Health and Adult Social Services, said, "This mission statement should be on every wall in this city."
Read it and see if you agree...
'We are committed to helping Liverpool and Merseyside become known as the UK's most caring community, the very best place for us, our children and grandchildren to live and grow up. We will do this by promoting and celebrating good news and the culture of caring in the region.'
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When we look around at the vast number of caring activities going on every day, the armies of committed people and organisations who are involved in them, and the ever-increasing amount of positive effort, it's perhaps hard to understand why the overall trend these days appears to be negative.
There's clearly no shortage of goodwill, or people intelligent and experienced and ready enough to work hard to make the world a better place.
Perhaps we missing something?
 When people of different cultures, values, religions or allegiances, or even just different sides of a public consultation, find themselves sharing the same space, we don't always see harmony - we sometimes find intolerance, ignorance and occasionally confrontation.
In some instances, though, communities successfully create harmony through identifying with each other for what they have in common, rather than for what they don't.
This principle of motivating people to emphasise common values ahead of differences is the basis for how Capital of Caring will work.
The cost will be as much or as little as people want; it will work without fuss, on a very large scale, using a cultural value that is arguably universally unifying and appealing - a cultural value we refer to as a "culture of caring".
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 The region's cultural richness recently won European acclaim as European Capital of Culture 2008, a highly prestigous accolade...
This has brought with it much needed and deserved business investment and regeneration - which is already transforming the city centre. By the end of 2008 there will be a legacy of art & architecture for everyone to marvel at for years to come.
 However, a lot has been said about the 2008 Capital of Culture programme not doing enough 'for the people'. Some argue that the best enduring culture comes not just from what's around us, but from what's within... However, given the enormous amount of energy and effort being directed towards wellbeing and neighbourhood regeneration, this criticism is perhaps a little unfair.
There's no doubting the huge diveristy of culture in the region.. it's what we have always been famous for. But there is an opportunity to celebrate the culture that we all share... our abundant culture of caring! 
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Just ask the chief executive of any successful firm about the power of getting their team behind a single vision to aim at... with a single, meaningful mission for all to achieve;
 ...or talk to a community leader about the impact of listening to everyone's ideas in a regeneration scheme?
Extend this principle to an entire urban region and we begin to understand the nature. and the potential of Capital of Caring.
Is it possible?
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The Vision 
