Khari Edwards - Extending his Hand to the Brooklyn Community
Khari Edwards is the president of the Make-A-Wish Brooklyn Community Council who is also currently running for Brooklyn Borough President. As a Black man in Brooklyn, he has negotiated his own professional path and seeks to make change happen wherever he goes. His diagnosis with Type 1 Diabetes at the age of four gives him tremendous insight into what children - and their families - who battle illness go through. And he is making sure that kids in his borough are given a chance to have the best childhood possible. However, his care for his community has been a part of his life as long as he can remember, driven by words of his parents - “selflessness is the best part of being selfish.” He doesn’t stop with just making sure that kids get wishes, but he extends his give-back philosophy throughout his community.
When Khari took the position of Vice President of External Affairs at Brookdale Hospital, he wasn’t quite prepared for he was stepping into. In a community of color like Brooklyn, he expected the workforce to have similar representation. He was their first VP of color.
“You’re our Obama. You need to do right by us,” remarked a nurse who offered her congratulations.
That was his first clue. The second, came at his first board meeting, seeing immediately that he was the only person of color in the room. At first he struggled, but soon realized that his interpersonal communication was being misread.
“Even just my mannerisms, you know, the way that people of color do things different than their counterparts. That adjustment was tough,” Khari said. “But as you started to walk around, and folks spoke to you and got more comfortable with you, then you realize that you are a bridge to the administration.”
It was at Brookdale that Khari learned about Make-A-Wish, through a colleague who regularly referred kids under their treatment for a wish. He learned that due to a lack of local volunteers, many Brooklyn children were waiting longer to receive a wish. He immediately trained to become a Wish Granter, but was soon hit with a stunning bit of information – the volunteers in Manhattan didn’t want to come to Brooklyn.
“I couldn't understand it. Being here my entire life, (I thought) everybody wanted to come to Brooklyn?” he said.
But the reputation of misunderstood communities held strong, intimidating volunteers who were unfamiliar with the borough.
“It kicked me into gear, not in the perspective of being Black or Latino or White. It kicked me in because they're kids, and kids don't ask for the things that they go through,” Khari said.
And the community of Brooklyn kicked into gear along with him.
“Brooklyn is so dope, right? Actually giving Brooklyn its own ownership of something created an avenue that this is important to all of us. So that became the call – to speak out to friends, and friends’ friends to step up and help…. In our community, we have some of the highest comorbidities in the nation, you know, HIV and cancer.” he said. “I felt it was important that we kept being represented in a way that was important.”
Khari found strength in working directly with families, speaking holistically and emotionally about childhood illness because of his own childhood. As a Type 1 diabetic since age four, that ailment in his childhood was the hardest battle he fought. It made him sympathize for not just wish kids, but for the many kids the hospital he worked for.
Helping to expand the Make-A-Wish volunteer base in Brooklyn is far from the only improvement Khari has sought to make in his community. In his time at Brookdale Hospital, he created a program called, “It Starts Here,” incited by his son’s own near-miss experience with gun violence. “It Starts Here” brought children and students into the hospitals to learn about the reality of the gun violence pandemic.
Khari also sponsored a tutoring program for young women of color to prepare them for SATs and high school entrance exams, reaching over 200 students, something he says he is extremely proud of.
“I think is important that we allow our community and our kids the opportunity to see what's good for them,” he said. “I think it's important to talk to our children, accentuating what their gifts are and moving them that way. It’s about building a future full of opportunity for the kids in our community.”
Over the years, Khari has also worked with various grassroots organizations, mobilizing around issues like food insecurities and housing disparities as needed in the community. Helping his community though, has been a part of his life as long as he can remember, driven by words of his parents - “selflessness is the best part of being selfish.”
“It’s spiritual for me.” Khari said. “I know if somebody calls and I can help them, that it does something for me that carries me through. It’s something that gets me out of bed. That's the battery I have. And I don't think it's going to go down anytime soon.”
His community work has also opened Khari’s eyes to the truly diverse nature of Brooklyn – and of wish kids. He’s helped kids of all different cultures and backgrounds and says that it’s made him see that the power of a wish is universal.
“When you just see the commonality of parents wanting the better for their kids, wanting their kids to smile and enjoy life - it didn't matter what the cultural differences were. Because that was the common goal - to make sure that we put smiles on people's faces, and make sure that they have a better life.”
Khari said experiencing this firsthand has had a profound impact on him. He still reflects on the many children whose wishes he has helped grant – a child’s smile after their 10th surgery, or one who was suffering through a difficult week brought back to light by a Black Panther toy.
“When you speak to someone who has the innocence of hope in their conversation, or a reluctance to allow you in, because they've been going through their own pain, and you break through that little wall, and you get to hear them say, ‘Well, you know, I would love to do this.’ And you have the ability to try to get that done… you get emotional about it, but you're emotional in a way that you've done something,” he said.
“I’ve been blessed to be here when I shouldn’t have been. I’m supposed to extend my hand to folks who don’t have,” he said. “It’s my mission.”
As an extension of this mission, Khari is running for Brooklyn Borough President. Khari, though, sees this next step as a bittersweet one. He’ll be able to do more good for his community, but unable to connect with wish kids and families on the level he does now.
“In the role that I have now and in the role that I'm running for, I'm not going to be able to get, or keep those personal connections. But what I do get to keep are the memories of those personal connections - and that builds. So when I go into another situation - it could be with a senior, it could be with a constituent - that you remember that spiritual joy of giving to someone.”