Televerde Celebrates the Public Launch of The Televerde Virtual Roundtable
This digital experience invites the public to sit with many of the incarcerated women who make up the Televerde workforce to hear them share their journeys of transformation.
Phoenix, AZ, Apr. 4, 2023: The stigma associated with having a criminal record makes finding and securing employment difficult for former prisoners. A criminal past leaves individuals susceptible to being interpreted as untrustworthy and at elevated risk for bad behavior. As a result of this, employment options are limited, and those jobs that are available to this community, are typically low-wage, have no growth potential, and are non-gratifying. Televerde, a global sales and marketing solutions company that provides second-chance employment and helps disempowered people find their voice and reach their human potential, wants to change this. The company announced today that it has launched The Televerde Virtual Roundtable, a series of first-person video narratives from the incarcerated women who make up 70 percent of Televerde’s global workforce. With the launch of this series, the public will be able to sit face-to-face with incarcerated women and hear in their own words their stories and how training, support, and opportunity allowed them to find and fulfill their human potential.
“As a for-profit company that works with members of the incarcerated community, we know people are initially skeptical about the talent and potential inside U.S. corrections facilities,” said Kellie Walenciak, head of Marketing, Televerde. “The goal of The Televerde Virtual Roundtable is to show the world our Televerde operations so people can hear directly from the incarcerated women who work with us. These interviews are personal, candid, and raw and speak to the factors that influence decision-making. Each woman takes responsibility for their choices and shares inspiring narratives of transformation, hope, and second chances. Our goal is that our Virtual Roundtable series will be a call to action for business leaders to be more aware of their own biases when evaluating talent and developing modern-day recruiting and hiring policies.”
According to the Department of Justice, more than 650,000 individuals are released from prison every year, and studies show that approximately two-thirds will be rearrested within three years of release. The high volume of returnees reflects the stigma of incarceration and the inability of these women and men to secure meaningful work, reclaim their independence, and support their families.
“The launch of The Televerde Virtual Roundtable is a game changer for the second-chance movement,” said Chris McGugan, CEO of Televerde. “Collaborating with the incarcerated community, we at Televerde are privy to their talent, intellectual horsepower, potential, reliability, honesty, integrity, innovative ideas, and problem-solving abilities. These are traits not historically associated with this group, especially within the business world. So when the public sits with these women and listens to their personal journeys, I believe the tide will change dramatically as more companies see how these individuals can offer significant opportunities for their businesses. And they’ll want to embrace them because of that.”
This digital experience is live on the Televerde website. Access it here: https://televerde.com/insights/roundtable/
About Televerde
Phoenix-based Televerde is the preferred sales, marketing, and customer experience solutions partner that delivers revenue as a service and customer care expertise with a human touch, best-in-class technology, and an operating model that is resilient to shifting market conditions. Since 1995, Televerde has generated more than $12B in revenue for the world’s leading B2B companies including SAP, GE, Adobe-Marketo, and Securus Technologies.
A purpose-built company, Televerde believes in second-chance employment and strives to help disempowered people find their voice and reach their human potential. Seven of Televerde’s 10 engagement centers are staffed by incarcerated women, representing 70 percent of the company’s 600+ global workforce. The Arizona State University Seidman Research Institute recently documented the model’s success in a study. The results reveal that participants of Televerde’s program go on to attain employment, earnings, and education at higher rates and re-offend at significantly lower rates than other formerly incarcerated females in the United States. The full study can be accessed here.
