The Springfield Way - Dr. Alan Tinkler

Dr. Alan Tinkler is an associate professor and assistant department head in the Department of English at Missouri State University. We talk about a new summer internship program called The Springfield Way.

The Springfield Way is a paid summer internship program. Summer 2023 was its first run. There were 14 students who each did 100 hours of service with a community partner using skills that are specific to the students discipline.

The internships were designed by the community partners to build capacity. To illustrate what capacity building means, Dr. Tinkler talks about the difference between AmeriCorps and vista. Whereas AmeriCorps works on the principle of direct services, Vista's purpose is to build operational and organizational capacity. At the Springfield way, all of the internships tilt toward the capacity lift side of things.

This year, all of the Springfield Way community partner organizations work with individuals or families who are experiencing housing insecurity or homelessness. Examples of partners include: One Door, the Kitchen Inc, and the Drew Lewis Foundation. Examples of the kinds of internships we’re talking about include: Project Management Intern, Planned Giving Specialist, and Success Story Specialist.

We discuss related topics, including: the origin of the Springfield Way, where the name comes from, the community focus report, the living wage in Springfield, plans for the future of the Springfield way, the community learning agreement, housing insecurity in our community. We also the concept of a community engagement profile: Any given individual might have a service profile, for example, or a doner profile. These can change throughout our lives. 

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