Frederick J. Riley

Frederick Riley grew up in a tough neighborhood of Saginaw, Michigan where he didn’t have a lot, but he did have a community. His mother taught him that when times were tough, you shared what you had, offered emotional support, and showered love abundantly on everyone.

That’s what he gave and received from his community. His pastor convinced him he could be grow up and be somebody. His high school English teacher regularly sent notes of encouragement with fifty dollars tucked inside while he was in college. She knew it was not an expected or easy rite of passage for someone like him. This network of people helped him weave a life path.

Now Riley leads the Aspen Institute’s Weave: The Social Fabric Project, which supports people in communities everywhere who are weaving trust, connection, and hope. To pay forward the love of weavers in his life, Riley spent 16 years at various levels of the YMCA organization around the country. He helped build and fund programs that gave youth a sense of value and belonging while helping them prepare for life beyond high school.

Riley has nurtured community wherever he has lived – Atlanta, St. Louis, Chicago, Cincinnati, and now Washington, DC – yet he remains a proud son of Saginaw, Michigan. Among his many roles in professional and civic groups, he covets most the time he spends with his own family as a son, brother, uncle, and godfather, and with all the people who became family because of their care.