Recent cover story in Time by Joe Klein about how vets from recent wars return home and often drift and succumb to various problems including PTSD…. and how involvement in community volunteer programs teaches them effective ways to adjust to a new life.
This is an example of learning by doing… and also a form that many non-profit programs can and probably should adopt, and that involves DLE supplements to the activity that the “service volunteer recruits or fellows” are undertaking. A comprehensive program in other words, which is a prime candidate to be designed with a package of elements; DLE that have online and also real world components.
Service as apprenticeship…
A growth area. This is not too much different from what some need who have dropped out of the “success track” in society for various reasons . Some live in areas that have life conditions similar to war zones as far as street violence is concerned; but there are many inducements and invitations to a dysfunctional life that could be addressed for large numbers of youth and young adults in US.
Informal learning in a context related to their experience with fellow interested travelers is a good solution. At EPPC we proposed a program for the homeless vets at their shelter. This was not a solution because the vets were barely coping , similar to those experiencing domestic violence. Education is not their main focus. coming up with something that touches them at a personal level , accessible when ready could work.