Press Release - Florida Center Expands

From: CSD - Jun 23, 2006

PRESS  ANNOUNCEMENT
For Immediate Release: June 22, 2006
Contact: Rick Norris
CSD Communications Office

CSD Adds 100 New Jobs at its Florida TRS Center SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – CSD, the nation’s leading telecommunications and human service organization for deaf and hard of hearing people, announced that text relay operations at its Jacksonville, Florida call center will be expanded to include additional work shifts beginning in July 2006. The expansion will add approximately 100 new jobs, nearly doubling the current number of employees at the facility. While some of the jobs may be filled with current CSD employees from other facilities, a majority of the jobs are expected to be filled with new hires from the local area. The Jacksonville TRS center opened in May 2005 and has the potential capacity to employ up to 500 employees should continued expansion be warranted.   Telecommunication relay services (TRS) is designed to make the telephone industry accessible to deaf, hard of hearing and people with speech disabilities. Highly trained relay operators serve as professional intermediaries, relaying phone conversations back and forth between standard voice telephone users and text telephone users. In a typical call, the operator or communication assistant (CA) reads aloud words typed and transmitted electronically by a deaf person and then immediately transcribes the hearing person’s spoken response, which appears on the text telephone screen of the deaf caller. Callers can use the Florida Relay Service by dialing 7-1-1 or 800-955-8771or they can also use the Internet to make a text relay call. There is no charge to use the relay service (other than standard long distance charges, if applicable).   "We see this expansion as a win-win situation for everyone concerned, including our TRS partners, our internal TRS network, the employees and of course, the city of Jacksonville," said Benjamin Soukup, president and chief executive officer of CSD. "We have already demonstrated how flexible, highly productive and dependable the current workforce is in the (Jacksonville) center, and we are pleased that this expansion will give us an even greater presence in the area."   The Jacksonville call center is one of 11 TRS call centers within the CSD network. Certain centers operate around-the-clock offering service to the nation’s deaf and hard of hearing callers who rely on the service for telephone access. CSD partners with Sprint to provide much of the TRS technology and engineering support. Together, they contractually service more than half of the country, processing millions of relay calls each month, making them the largest TRS provider in the country.

"It is going to be quite a challenge to ramp up quickly and increase the number of CAs as needed in a relatively short period of time, but the Jacksonville team is glad to be taking on that challenge," said Jim Skjeveland, TRS chief operations manager. "We are honored to have been selected by our partners to take on the additional traffic at this particular center (which prompted the expansion), and we will do whatever we need to do in order to meet the expectations."

Job candidates interested in working at the Jacksonville TRS call center can apply electronically at http://www.c-s-d.org or they can go directly to the facility or call the center at: 6225 Lake Gray Blvd, Suite 1, Jacksonville, 904-777-1770. To be considered, applicants must be at least 18 years of age, have a high school diploma or equivalent (GED) and be able to type at least 60 words per minute. Candidates will be required to complete a multi-step qualification process and will be contacted after they have applied.

CSD (also known as Communication Service for the Deaf, Inc.) is a private, nonprofit human services agency headquartered in Sioux Falls, S.D., and it is also one of the world's oldest and largest telecommunications relay service providers. Through a 15 year TRS partnership with Sprint, CSD serves an estimated 18 million users in 30 states across the nation. Since its inception in 1975, CSD has been dedicated to providing quality services, ensuring public accessibility and increasing public awareness of issues affecting deaf, hard of hearing and individuals with speech impairments. For more information, see the company web site at: www.c-s-d.org

-- End --

* CSD ~ An Official Sponsor of the 2007 Winter Deaflympics