by FaithHouseManhattan
by Samir Selmanovic
In twenty years of teaching, writing, publishing, and community organizing, locally, nationally, and internationally, I have never met a young person with as much energy, focus, intellect, and integrity as Frank Fredericks. No, I am not exaggerating. Recklessly committed, fearlessly passionate, and stunningly capable, Frank Fredericks is a young world-changer whose time has come.
We at Faith House feel beyond fortunate to have Frankie join our team as Community Development Administrator, albeit in a part-time capacity (50 hours per month).
I have known Frank for almost four years now and every time I am exposed to his work and people who work with him, I am repeatedly surprised by the impact he has made for the causes he has been serving. He has an ability to grasp the big picture of local situations around the world and the forces that affect young people’s identities and aspirations, create operable plans of action, and then take the time to painstakingly and skillfully move the causes forward. All of this is only matched by his disarming humility and infectious joy of making a difference. While many young entrepreneurs are looking for their identity, he has found it and he is in this for the long haul.
Being highly results driven, Frank has been leading his non-profit organization World Faith to real and measurable impacts, in hours served, young people reached, people fed, refugees settled, and minds changed about the religious other. In the conflict zones where World Faith is active, this means saved lives. What makes these results exponentially more impressive is that they were done by religiously-diverse youth acting on their own, thus facilitating an experience of compassion for each other. Compassion is a force that once experienced gets out of control and becomes a generator of creativity and instigator for change. I think that the greatest measure of Frank’s work is the growing group of young leaders, following his example, dreaming their own dreams of changing the world!
Frank sees religion as a door to change, an untapped potential for organizing to solve world problems, a vast structure in all societies that can be used to make a difference in our newly small and interdependent world. Globalization has changed everything and world religions are having an identity crisis asking: “How can we exist for the common good?” Indifference and isolation are not options any more. Over and over again Frank has taught me that the new generation from all continents is demanding cooperation, freedom, generosity, and interdependence.
Frank and World Faith are tapping into the vision of new generations in each country they go to and help them see their own religion as servant to the world instead of a conqueror, a sojourner with others instead of a competitor. From Egypt to Chicago, and around the world, World Faith is offering a new space where youth can gather, organize, and learn to become citizens of the world not in spite of their commitment to local stories, traditions, and culture, but because of them. It is not about religion; it is about the world that religion has opportunity and obligation to serve. That’s why Frank has been an example in how to include, advocate for, and learn from people of no religion at all, such as humanists and atheists. His worldview is well informed, realistic, sophisticated, and generous.
As I have observed Frank in his work, from individual conversations that he engages in daily, to consulting organizations, to speaking to large and diverse audiences, I admit, I felt a tinge of envy. But after three years of watching him and the network of young world-changers that he animates, I have found a source of inspiration. Frank is a visionary, a versatile and committed leader, but above all, a humble team player in the pursuit of the cause we all so strongly believe in. Change in the world is possible, and it will be led by people like Frank. His ability to organize and inspire in the face of opposition, inertia, and financial hardship has inspired me to continue doing my own life work. I have trained many young leaders, but this is the one I would be willing to follow.
