Aaron P. Bernstein/Reuters

Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, accompanied by members of the Republican Conference, speaks at a news conference about the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Acts at the Capitol in Washington Dec. 20.

With final passage of the most sweeping tax overhaul in 31 years on Wednesday, President Trump and the Republicans in Congress have a significant legislative achievement under their belt – the crown on an economy with a surging stock market, the lowest jobless rate in nearly two decades, and annualized economic growth that tops 3 percent.

These are the contours of the Trump economy, and the president and his party now own it – happily, they believe. “Our team will go onto many more VICTORIES!” Mr. Trump tweeted. 

How it plays out politically next year – whether it curbs the traditional loss of congressional seats for a first-term president, and a highly controversial one at that – will depend on how Americans perceive and experience the economy, and what else is competing for their attention.

“How people feel about the economy will help guide their vote in 2018,” says Nathan Gonzales, editor and publisher of the nonpartisan Inside Elections. American elections are often about the economy, but not always, he says. North Korea or a terrorist attack could refocus attention on national security. The unfolding sexual harassment saga on Capitol Hill could scramble races in unpredictable ways.

At this point in time, Republicans have cause for concern. According to opinion polls, the tax bill is unpopular and so is the president – despite the positive economic indicators. Recent elections in purple Virginia and deeply red Alabama show Democrats on the rebound. Their base is revved up, while enthusiasm for Republicans is at a historic low in generic ballot polling, says GOP pollster Ed Goeas.

“The intensity gap is on steroids,” he says, adding that Republicans hope the tax overhaul – which includes eliminating the penalty for the individual mandate under Obamacare – will help gin up enthusiasm for their party’s candidates.

But how will voters react to the $1.5 trillion tax cut? The messaging war to frame the bill – hastily hammered out by Republicans with no Democratic support – is already under way and will continue next year.

Republicans say that slashing the corporate rate from 35 to 21 percent and giving other businesses a substantial break will make America more globally competitive, generate economic growth, and in turn result in more jobs and higher wages. The president on Wednesday touted the corporate tax reduction as “probably the biggest factor in our plan.”

By doubling the standard deduction and the child tax credit, middle- and low-income Americans will have more money in their pockets – $2,059 for a family of four that earns a median income of $73,000, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R) of Wisconsin repeatedly points out.

The vast majority of Americans will see a tax cut in 2018, according to independent analyses. But Democrats counter that for most families the cut won't amount to much and it’s temporary – while the bulk of the plan will benefit the wealthy and corporations and will increase the deficit by at least $1 trillion. They call it a “tax scam.”

Differences in paycheck withholding may come as early as February, “but for most people, the change won’t be big enough to make much of a difference,” says Stan Collender, a budget expert in Washington. Meanwhile, the midterm elections will take place before people have their first real reckoning with the full effects of the bill – when they do their tax returns in April 2019.

When it comes to the economy, “perception is stronger than reality,” says Democratic pollster Celinda Lake. One of the biggest factors shaping many people's perceptions of the economy right now is the stock market. In that, Ms. Lake finds an irony, since many of the strongest supporters of the president’s “Make America Great Again” agenda are blue collar and not invested in the markets.

Democrats will have to win over some of those voters to flip the House or retake the Senate (a much longer shot), she and others point out. But she says Democrats have yet to lay out a clear economic alternative: “You can’t beat something with nothing.”

Impact on wages

It may be that the expectation of a tax bill, on top of swift deregulation, have already been largely baked into the stock market, and that economic conditions won’t rocket ahead next year. Much has been made of corporate leaders who said they would use their tax cuts to buy back stock or automate, rather than create jobs or raise wages.

But Republican pollster Goeas says one part of the tax bill that could increase wages is getting scant attention, and that’s the big break that has been given to “pass-through” businesses such as partnerships and S corporations. That includes real estate titans like Trump, but also many small businesses.

“For the first time, they are giving a tax break to small businesses at the same level as to corporations,” he says. Companies that have middle-income owners are often closely and personally connected to their workers – and they may be more likely to give them a wage increase and add staff than corporations focused on shareholders.

Republicans are staking everything on the tax bill and the economy, says Republican consultant Matt Mackowiak, in Austin, Texas.

By getting the bill passed, they’ve topped off a significant list of achievements – including deregulation, a Supreme Court justice, and the appointment of federal judges, he says. And they have a stark contrast to point to, with Democrats intent on shutting down the president’s agenda, investigating him, and impeaching him: “You can imagine two very different futures here.”

If the president’s approval ratings are still in the mid-30s by the time the midterms come, “it’s going to be ugly for Republicans, there’s no way around that,” he says. “But if the tax reform works, even if [the economy] doesn’t go gangbusters ... it could contribute to a positive environment and increase Republican enthusiasm. That’s a big part of this mix. [Until now] Republicans haven’t been as enthusiastic as Democrats.”

'It's the economy, stupid'

When Bill Clinton was running for president in 1992, strategist James Carville famously drilled the same line over and over again: “It’s the economy, stupid.” But that’s not always the whole story, Rep. Tom Cole (R) of Oklahoma told reporters Wednesday.

“We’re in a very polarized period in American history. The opposition is always energized at the midterms. The economy will be a factor – I think it will be a factor in our favor – but I don’t think in and of itself it will be determinative,” says Congressman Cole.

Republicans still have to go out and fight, he says. “If a guy like Ronald Reagan lost 26 seats in a midterm, then anybody’s vulnerable.”

Three weeks ago, Nicole Murray had been thinking about presents.

It was just after Black Friday, and she was hoping to come up with some great gift ideas for the people she loved. “I wanted to go above and beyond,” she recalls.

Then on Dec. 4, the Thomas fire struck. Ms. Murray found herself rushing out of the Ventura, Calif., home she shared with her boyfriend and his family with nothing but her two dogs and a haphazardly packed suitcase. Later they learned the fire had burned down their house – along with most of the neighborhood.

In some ways, Murray counts herself lucky: she and her family managed to secure a rental in nearby Oxnard after spending only a few nights at a hotel. But the stress, shock, and loss have taken their toll. Now all she wants for Christmas is some quiet time with loved ones to process everything she’s been through.

“We’re just all exhausted,” she says. “We just want to spend time together.”

In just over two weeks the Thomas fire – now the second largest in state history – has ripped through more than 270,000 acres, destroying more than 1,000 structures and damaging more than 200 others, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire. About 8,000 firefighters remain on the front lines.

As of Tuesday the fire was about 55 percent contained and evacuation orders have been lifted for parts of Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, though thousands of residents still either can’t go home or have none to return to. Los Angeles and San Diego counties are also still reeling from the scorching they’ve received.

Despite all that, the fires have done what tragedies often do: bring people together. Volunteers have mobilized across Southern California, collecting donations and distributing food, water, and supplies. Some have teamed up with the Red Cross and the Salvation Army. Others have taken it upon themselves to help friends and neighbors. The effect is an almost regional display of holiday spirit in the face of the state’s worst fire season on record.

Even Murray, worn out from weeks of anxiety, can’t say enough about the kindness she’s received from colleagues, friends, and complete strangers.

“I struck up a conversation with a person in line [at the pet store] and she just hugged me and said, ‘I’m so sorry for what you’re going through,’ ” Murray says. “There’s been unbelievable emotional support.”

Fresh meals from a survivor

At the San Buenaventura Mission in downtown Ventura, local chef Tim Kilcoyne is helping oversee the production of thousands of fresh meals to be sent out to shelters and first responders. Like Murray, Mr. Kilcoyne had to evacuate with his wife and six-month-old son the night the Thomas fire broke out. His house survived, but his family decided to stay in Oxnard to keep the baby away from the smoke.

Jessica Mendoza/The Christian Science Monitor

A chef at the nonprofit L.A. Kitchen in Los Angeles gives volunteers tips on Dec. 19 ahead of a three-hour shift of meal prep for firefighters and survivors.

Meanwhile, Kilcoyne decided he wanted to do something to help. A friend connected him to renowned chef José Andrés, whose nonprofit World Central Kitchen has partnered with Los Angeles-based L.A. Kitchen to provide free, healthy meals to firefighters and fire victims in Ventura, Oxnard, Carpinteria, Santa Barbara, and Los Angeles. Now Kilcoyne is part of a group of about 10 volunteer chefs at the makeshift cookery at San Buenaventura, guiding a daily influx of volunteers as they bag fruit, chop vegetables, and put together sandwiches.

“This is our ninth day doing this, and I’ve been here every day from about 6 a.m. to anywhere between 9 and 11 at night,” Kilcoyne says. And though he plans to take Christmas Day off – it’s his son’s first, and he doesn’t want to miss it – “we’re going to do this as long as we can, as long as the need’s there,” he says.

Buying water and raising money

Other locals are working at a smaller – though no less meaningful – scale. A day after the evacuation orders were lifted, Rhandi LaChonce was back in her Ventura neighborhood, handing out water and face masks that she spent $400 of her own money to buy.

Later she paired up with an author friend to raise funds for individuals and families who hadn’t been able to find help via nonprofits, the government, or crowdsourcing sites. “We found all of the Thomas fire Facebook pages and were like, ‘Whoever has no GoFundMe, no insurance or immediate support, contact me,’ ” says Ms. LaChonce, a bartender and student.

Since then they’ve collected about $13,000 and distributed nearly $9,000, paying for people’s meals, cell phone bills, and other immediate needs. And LaChonce says she’s been struck by the generosity of spirit she’s seen and experienced through it all.

“There’s been a few families that have some severe despair. How could you not?” she says. “But the people I’m working with, their spirits are so high. They lost everything, and a lot of them are still giving time to other families who lost stuff.

“It makes my heart feel bigger,” she adds.

Somber, but appreciative

Still, holiday cheer won’t come easily. Firefighters are expected to work through the first week of January, and Cal Fire top brass are planning a site visit to Ventura and Santa Barbara on Christmas Day.

“They’re taking it well, and we have been able to rotate out some of the crews that have been there since the beginning to get some relief,” says agency spokesperson Lynne Tolmachoff of the fire crews. “But we can’t take the day off.”

Sabryna Aylard, whose family had to evacuate from their home in the Ventura hills, views the holidays with a mixture of feelings: relief that her family is safe; gratitude for the firefighters who helped save their home; guilt that their house survived when so many of their neighbors’ didn’t; frustration that they might be stuck spending Christmas at a hotel room while they wait for the air quality in their neighborhood to improve.

“It’s a rollercoaster of emotions that we’re all going through,” she says. “We’re trying to stay positive.”

Murray says she feels the same. But she also marvels at the strength and giving spirit of the community surrounding her. Her first day back at work, she says, she learned her colleagues had set up a rotation to make sure she could take home-cooked meals back to her family every night, “so we could have dinner and not have to worry about it.”

“They’ve been completely understanding of everything,” Murray adds. “If it wasn’t for the support I’m seeing from friends and coworkers, I’d be a complete wreck.”

Patrick Semansky/AP/File

The National Security Agency (NSA) campus in Fort Meade, Md. Congress is struggling to reauthorize key rules that govern National Security Agency wiretapping.

Congress is struggling to reauthorize key rules that govern National Security Agency wiretapping, without a warrant, of foreign targets outside the United States. The rules are set to expire at the end of the year, though the NSA believes it could legally continue the program through April while lawmakers continue to debate the subject. The House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on the issue Thursday. It’s unclear when or if the Senate will follow suit.

Q: What program is at issue?

The rules in question are set out in Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. In US national security discussions they’re usually referred to as “Section 702” or “702” for short. Under this program, the National Security Agency (NSA) can vacuum up the electronic communications of foreign intelligence targets deemed likely to be located outside US territory. Officials don’t need a court-issued warrant for individual targets. Instead, the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court annually approves a list of proper categories of foreign intelligence collection.

Q: Is there a problem?

Section 702 surveillance efforts sometimes sweep up information on US citizens. This is supposed to be inadvertent: The citizens in question are communicating with foreign intelligence targets, say, or are merely mentioned by those targets. Given that Americans have greater legal rights than the foreign targets, how should information involving US citizens be handled? Under current law it is not discarded, and in some circumstances it can be used for law enforcement investigations. For instance, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is allowed to search some of the data for national security and other purposes, using queries such as an email address or a name. But in general, the US material is supposed to be “minimized,” with identities shielded and access controlled.

Privacy advocates say the current protections are not sufficient and that changes should be made. One possible modification: requiring the FBI to obtain individualized warrants to view some query results.

Q: What are the politics?

NSA surveillance issues can be politically complicated, and the renewal of Section 702 is no exception. Privacy protection draws support from both the left and right sides of the US political spectrum, as it combines elements of liberalism and libertarianism. Seldom are the American Civil Liberties Union and the conservative House Freedom Caucus in agreement, but they are in this case. Neither group wants Section 702 to simply be re-upped as it stands, a so-called clean reauthorization.

Washington’s current polarized environment has added a layer of predictable partisanship on top of this mix. Earlier this year the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Devin Nunes (R) of California, said he had evidence that some Trump aides caught in the 702 dragnet had their names improperly revealed, or “unmasked,” to other government officials. Democrats have vehemently disputed this. It’s led to a situation where the GOP majority of the intelligence panel has pushed provisions to make unmasking more difficult. The Democratic minority, to this point, has been opposed.

Q: Where does the issue stand?

It’s been kind of a mess. The NSA and other security agencies are pushing for a clean reauthorization of the Section 702 program, which they say is an important tool for protecting the US from terrorists and other threats to national security. It was key in defusing a plot to detonate homemade bombs on the New York subway in 2009, said FBI Director Christopher Wray in October at a seminar on surveillance without warrants, held at the Heritage Foundation in Washington. It’s also been used to help the US understand Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election.

“Any material change to the FBI’s use of 702 would severely inhibit our ability to keep the American people safe,” Mr. Wray told the Heritage audience.

Clean reauthorization might have difficulty passing the House, however, because of the left-right combination of opposition. But it is unclear what sort of reauthorization could pass the House, as 702’s critics haven’t settled on a unified course of action for themselves.

The House is scheduled to vote on the issue Thursday now that the GOP’s big tax bill has passed and is out of the way. The bill that will be at issue on the floor says that the FBI “may” get a court order before reviewing information collected under Section 702 for criminal cases against Americans. It does not appear to require the FBI to take such a step, however. Critics worried about privacy protection are unlikely to be mollified by this language.

Q: Where will this end?

That remains unclear. The outcome of Thursday’s House vote is far from certain, as 702’s critics on both the right and left are likely to vote “no” on a bill they feel does not contain enough protections for US citizen privacy. Meanwhile, the Senate has no plans to vote on separate legislation. Senate leaders plan to incorporate some kind of 702 reauthorization language in the big budget bill the chamber will eventually have to pass to keep the government open in 2018. Senate leaders believe this might be a way to jam the issue through, at least for the short term.

As noted above, the program expires at the end of December. NSA lawyers believe that they will be able to legally continue 702 program surveillance under the authority of the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court until April. But they add that the uncertainty created by such an overtime situation could be a problem for US intelligence community planning.

Stacey Knott

Christabel Afrane works among her Rhode Island Reds near Accra, Ghana. She bought the chickens and built their shed to prove she practices what she preaches to young women at the Kairos Ladies Network: that there is money and empowerment in agriculture in this West African nation, and when a woman succeeds, everyone benefits.

Christabel Afrane holds a plump chicken under her arm as she checks her boxes for eggs. The rest of her Rhode Island Reds cluck at her heels – every turn she makes, they follow.

She bought the birds to prove she practices what she preaches to girls in Ghana: that there is money and empowerment in agriculture; and that when a woman succeeds, everyone benefits.

In Mrs. Afrane’s home country, Ghana, women produce the majority of food. But female farmers in Africa tend not to reap what they sow, held back by higher barriers to funding, land, and materials than men encounter. It’s part of why so many eke out a living as low-scale subsistence farmers – a trend she’s seen firsthand.

When Afrane’s grandmother, Mary Akua Ago, lost her husband, she had to walk two hours to her farm and back each day – planting, weeding, and harvesting only to feed her family. She used to have a plot close to her home, but when her husband died it went to his family, leaving her no other option to provide food for her eight children.

Watching her grandmother’s struggle, Afrane wondered: “How can you support this woman, or a young girl, who is moving heaven and earth to survive?”

Today, Afrane is on a quest to bring more women into agriculture, and support them once they’re there. When their opportunities grow, so do their profits – along with their yields, and their own ability to lift up other women. She’s not alone: from individuals to international NGOs, there is a growing emphasis across the continent for equality in farming.

There’s Mavis Nduchwa, whose animal farm in Botswana trains unemployed single mothers in poultry management. There’s Professor Ruth Oniang’o, joint winner of the 2017 African Food Prize, who has spent decades advocating for women in the sector. There’s even been a reality TV show about boosting female farmers in Tanzania: Female Food Heroes, sponsored by Oxfam.

They’re not empowering women for fairness alone, they say – though that’s important – but to better feed the world.

Chicken power

Women make up more than half of Ghana’s agricultural labor force, according to a 2014 study from the nongovernmental organization SEND-Ghana, and produce 70 percent of Ghana’s food stock. But just 10 percent of Ghana's female farmers own land, compared to 23 percent of men, and the average value of women’s land holdings is three times lower. Women are also largely locked out of obtaining financial services, due to limited education and mobility, and other social and cultural barriers, according to the study.

In 2015, when Afrane set up the Kairos Ladies Network, she wanted to forge a new path for women. She goes to schools where she and other female entrepreneurs speak about the benefits of working in the sector, shifting students’ impressions of it from small-scale farms to bigger agribusiness. She also organizes farm visits, including to her own. She believes the encouragement will offer a path to economic independence that could go a long way to ensure future equality, too, and feeding the nation.

On her property on the outskirts of Accra, Ghana’s capital, Afrane’s poultry farm has three sheds where 1,700 chickens and roosters cluck, crow, and lay. She sells about $2,100 worth of eggs each month, and plans to sell some of the chickens at Christmastime – offering a local alternative in an import-heavy sector. The farm has about ten employees – including her husband. It’s a story she hopes will inspire young women to reimagine what “agriculture” means, shifting away from the subsistence farming her own grandmother still practices.

'I see money on the field'

Abena Abedi is a rice farmer – large-scale. She buys about 200 tons of rice each year, supporting 88 small farms in Ghana’s eastern Volta region. Struggling smallholders generally don’t own the land they cultivate; farms are usually two acres or smaller. Ms. Abedi, an agricultural science graduate, provides them with training and technical support – the kind of help she wanted to provide when she first entered the industry.

Today, as a member of the Kairos Ladies Network, she speaks to young women about how they can build their own careers in agriculture. Female farmers’ challenges, in particular, stand out to her, so she focuses on working with them. Women tell her they can now pay school fees, and their livelihoods are improving. But often, she has to justify why she chooses to work in agriculture – which confuses male farmers in particular.

“Sometimes the farmers will ask why I am doing what I am doing. They think I am educated and look sophisticated – more than them – so I could go and sit in some office and stop wasting my time on the field,” she says with a laugh.

“I see money on the field,” she tells the farmers she works with, and works to help them realize the same.

Seeing money in farming is crucial to attract young women. But so is improving the livelihoods of those already in the sector.

This includes reducing the “drudgery,” allowing women time for other economic activities, says Jemimah Njuki, a senior program officer at the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), a Canadian government-funded development agency.

In Malawi and Zambia, where women are usually responsible for drying and smoking fish, the IDRC funded solar drying tents, reducing the time women spent watching and turning them. The tents also produce better-quality fish, so women can sell it at higher prices and to new markets.

Feminist food

More women getting their fair share in agriculture is a win for everyone, Dr. Njuki says.

“If you put a dollar in the hands of women, 90 cents is going to be put back into the family,” she says. “Children are going to go to school – especially girls are going to go to school. Nutrition in the household is going to improve. That is the power of women with money. They multiply it, they extend it. It benefits the extended family, it benefits the community.”

They can also alleviate world hunger, she adds, citing a United Nations report. Giving women the same opportunities as men would increase their productivity by up to 30 percent, improving overall output in developing countries by up to 4 percent – which translates to reducing the number of undernourished people worldwide by 150 million.

She’s excited for the future, especially as young people bring new innovations and technology to the sector. But for young women to progress, they’ll need the resources that have traditionally proven difficult to access across the continent, like land and financing.

“Banks and financial institutions need to see them as business people, not just young women,” she says. “The way they think about collateral for young women and young people generally has to change.”

Efforts like Afrane’s are going to help, Njuki adds.

“What we know now is the future of agriculture is going to be young. The future of our continent is going to be female. There will be more women, whether it’s in agribusiness, whether it's in research or policy, and the more people start seeing women in those places where they had been absent, the more things are going to change.”

Courtesy of Critical Bridge/Office of Mayor Sam Liccardo

Sam Liccardo, mayor of San Jose, Calif., chats with a student from Alpha Public Schools, a network of charter schools in the city.

If it weren’t for her mentor, Rebecca Cruz is certain that she wouldn’t have gotten her bachelor’s degree.

Ms. Cruz went through a troubling time during her second year in community college. She was struggling both financially and emotionally, and the first-generation college student didn’t feel much support at home. Teetering on the brink of stopping her education, Cruz turned to her counselor, Alex Lopez.

“He [put me in] the right direction,” Cruz recalls. Mr. Lopez “told me that education is a long-term investment. Especially if you are a first-gen student, you are going to break through a lot of barriers that have never been broken before. If I didn’t do that, it could be years and ... generations before it could happen again.”

That realization, along with the fact that Lopez pushed Cruz to apply for scholarships just 10 days before they were due, netted Cruz a full-ride scholarship – and ultimately an undergraduate degree in sociology from San Francisco State University.

“All the research shows that a student that has an adult that is interested in them and is paying a lot of attention to them, and spending a lot of time with them – there’s a lot of different positive outcomes they can gain from that,” says Sarah McGill, a program manager at the nonprofit Denver Urban Scholars.

In San Jose, Calif., Gisela Bushey is another woman who understands the importance of mentors, and she hopes to find an Alex for every Rebecca. So she designed Critical Bridge, which is linking with two existing youth programs in the city to provide them with mentorship.

And in October, Critical Bridge received a boost in its efforts: It was named a recipient of the $50,000 Encore Prize, which is awarded by Encore.org, a partner organization of the Monitor that aims to tap the talents of those age 50 or older.

As part of the prize, Encore.org will supply mentors to Critical Bridge. The mentors will work with youths throughout their participation in the two programs connected to Critical Bridge.

“The mentors will ... remain a part of their journey,” says Ms. Bushey, who is director of community engagement in the San Jose mayor’s office. “So they become that consistent adult role model that helps them navigate unfamiliar waters.”

A generation of potential mentors

More than 10,000 baby boomers in the United States are retiring every day, according to Phyllis Moen, a sociology professor at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis and the founding director of the U of M Advanced Careers Initiative. Many of these Americans have expressed a desire to give back to their communities.

“They want to do something meaningful. And there’s nothing more meaningful than mentoring across generations,” Professor Moen says. “It would be a real loss to the society and to the community if we let people who want to give back not find the opportunities to do so.”

The mentors for Critical Bridge will have gone through a training program by the end of this year, in which they’ll learn what it means to be a trusted confidant and to be in such a relationship with the San Jose youths. The training is being administered by several nonprofit organizations with robust mentoring programs.

The two programs connected with Critical Bridge are San José Works and the San Jose Promise, both of which were launched out of the office of Mayor Sam Liccardo. San José Works focuses on providing high-schoolers with summer employment opportunities in Silicon Valley companies. The San Jose Promise, for eligible high school graduates going on to community college, guarantees that their two years at those schools will be tuition-free. Cruz was a participant in this program.

“It made sense to design [Critical Bridge] to integrate with the two existing programs that are targeting population that we really care about, which are disadvantaged youth,” says Bushey, who is also an Encore fellow.

One Critical Bridge mentor

Dima Khoury, a former director of engineering for Cisco, has mentored young people throughout her career. After retirement, she became an Encore fellow and the campaign director for Generation to Generation (Gen2Gen), an Encore campaign mobilizing older adults to mentor disadvantaged youths. At the end of the day, she sees mentorship as a personal relationship.

“Take the time to get to know each other,” Ms. Khoury says. “If you take the time to build the trust at the beginning, it would be much easier to build a healthy relationship after that, and more beneficial.”

Speaking from experience, she says mentors might not always have the answers, but being a listener is just as important.

“I think what helps is sometimes asking the right questions and [letting] them reflect on it,” she says. “It provokes critical thinking.”

Khoury is set to be one of the Critical Bridge mentors.

Pitches for the prizes

Critical Bridge received the Encore Prize following a “Shark Tank”-like setup in Boston in mid-October. On a cloudy afternoon, tension and excitement filled District Hall, a public innovation center, as five entities made pitches to 17 judges (some via videoconference) and 125 people in the live audience. Two $50,000 Encore Prizes were up for grabs. The winners were chosen using a variety of factors that included strength of program, scalability, diversity of ideas, and population served.

Mentors “will guide them; they will move with them; they will be that critical bridge,” Bushey said during her pitch.

Critical Bridge received the Judges’ Prize. The other $50,000 award, the People’s Choice Prize, went to Hire Autism/Organization for Autism Research. In the case of the prize money for Critical Bridge, half of it will provide a stipend for Bushey as she oversees the program; the rest supports the training program for mentors and other program costs.

Critical Bridge is expected to be fully launched next March. Its goal within a year is to match 250 youths with mentors, and it aims to pair 1,000 youths with mentors by the end of the third year.

Giving back

Cruz, the San Francisco State graduate, is now a recruitment manager at Alpha Public Schools in San Jose – a network of charter schools focusing on helping underserved communities, primarily Latinos like herself. Cruz, too, has become a mentor.

“One of the things I’ve learned throughout my experience is that getting through adversity and getting through those challenging times in life is what makes it or breaks it for you,” she says, noting, “Sometimes we are at positions where we don’t have people to go to; you might not make it out from that same cycle.”

But by providing mentorship and resources, Cruz hopes that if such a time comes, students will “make the decision to push forward as opposed to [giving] up.”

[Editor’s note: The original wording used to describe Critical Bridge has been revised slightly.]

Ramon Espinosa/AP/File

What was once the home of Arden Dragoni and his family lies in ruins after hurricane Maria hit Toa Baja, Puerto Rico. The family lost everything Sept. 20: clothes, household goods, and an old car, as well as the family's source of income – Mr. Dragoni's construction work.

It would be easy to paint a gloomy picture of Puerto Rico at year’s end.

Three months after hurricane Maria struck the island only 70 percent of electrical power generation has been restored. And that figure doesn’t take into account downed lines that keep even that electricity from reaching many homes.

New research by news media organizations into death records has shown that more than 1,000 fatalities can be attributed to the storm and its aftermath, a huge increase over the current official total of just 64. 

An international human rights organization, Refugees International, has criticized relief efforts by both the federal and Puerto Rican governments as showing “poor coordination and logistics on the ground” that have “seriously undermined the effectiveness of the aid delivery process.”

On Tuesday US Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson visited the island and struck a more positive note, assuring a group of local officials, “We are in this for the long haul.” Current emergency relief efforts will be followed up by HUD’s help in rebuilding homes, he said.

No doubt the logistics involved in aiding 3.4 million Americans living on an island far off the US mainland, where poverty and a suspect power grid already existed, are daunting.

But it’d be wrong to not point out some good news as well. Celebrities such as movie star Jennifer Lopez and Lin-Manuel Miranda, creator of the Broadway megahit “Hamilton,” have raised millions of dollars in relief aid and continue to make known the island’s need for help.

Church groups across the United States have responded with heartfelt relief efforts. In Lexington, Mass., for example, the Lexington Interfaith Clergy Association sponsored a drive called Lexington Unites for Puerto Rico that resulted in a 40-foot container with lanterns, clothes, water, food, and other supplies being delivered to residents of Cabo Rojo and Aguadilla, two towns hit hard by the hurricane. 

Local church members there helped unload and distribute the donations to those most in need. The US group expects to continue its efforts, becoming a long-term commitment.

All Americans ought to keep the people of Puerto Rico in mind as they go about their end-of-year charitable giving.

But they can do so not with a sense of pity but with a feeling of rejoicing in the resilience being expressed by Puerto Ricans. From all over the island have come reports of neighbors helping neighbors, sharing what they have and checking in on each other. Some have worked with whatever tools they could find to clear debris and open the roads; many are rebuilding their homes with whatever materials they can find, not waiting for outside aid. 

Writer Rebecca Solnit studies disasters and how people respond to them, from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake to the 2005 hurricane that flooded New Orleans. Too often, she says, the wrong stories are told. 

“[E]verything we’ve been told about disaster by trashy Hollywood disaster movies ..., everything [in] the news – is that human beings are fragile” and will quickly revert to me-first looting and even savagery.

Instead, “When all the ordinary divides and patterns are shattered, people step up to become their brothers’ keepers,” she says. “And that purposefulness and connectedness brings joy even amidst death, chaos, fear, and loss.”

As we acknowledge the ability of Puerto Ricans to help themselves we’ll find ourselves encouraged to join with them in our prayers and with charitable donations.