FocusUp Founder Stephen Slappey on Teaching Today’s Youth How to ‘Adult’ in Charleston, SC

By Meg Hale Brunton

Before he founded FocusUp Charleston, Stephen Slappey recalls people complaining to him about “kids today not knowing anything,” referring to basic life skills. “Who’s going to teach them?” Slappey would counter. The parents say, ‘The schools.’ The schools say, ‘The parents.’ He observed that everyone shifted the responsibility to somebody else.  

“I’ve never been the type of person who says, ‘Someone has to do something,’ and then just puts it down. Let’s actually do something instead of just complaining about it,” Slappey says. He goes on to say that it is unfair for adults to dismiss important skills as ‘common sense.’ “It’s common sense because someone taught you it’s common sense, so I’ve been challenging that; nothing is common sense.”

Prior to starting FocusUp, Slappey and his now-wife founded and ran a marketing firm for eight years. While he felt he provided a good service to his customers, Slappey found himself feeling bogged down by his work life. “Everyday, I was going home, thinking, ‘Did today matter? Did today make a difference?’” he explains. 

In late 2021, when his wife decided she wanted to leave the company to become an elementary school art teacher, Slappey took it as a sign that it was time to move in another direction. He spoke with one of his mentors who commented that young adults were not being educated in the ways of the world. Something clicked for Slappey. “I’m the sort of person who feels the best when I am helping someone out, when I am making a difference in someone’s life, and I always have,” he explains. “So, I sold my company and I formed FocusUp.” 

Before formally establishing the 501c3 nonprofit FocusUp in April 2022, Slappey did his market research. “I interviewed one hundred different young adults in the Charleston area,” he says. “And across the board, everyone was like, ‘No one teaches us how to budget; no one teaches us soft skills, or introspective learning, or anything like that – all of these things which are so needed to succeed. That is really why I felt I had to do something about this.”

Photo Credit: Focus Up Charleston

Slappey’s research shows that 45.3% of students in the Charleston area come from economically disadvantaged households. “Our main focus is people that are underprivileged and under-served,” Slappey explains. 

He adds that 20% of high schoolers drop out before graduation in South Carolina. “Here in Charleston, that’s 6,000 kids a year,” Slappey says. “So, not only are they not going to have a high school degree, they’re not going to have any of these lessons. How are they supposed to succeed? How are they supposed to get ahead?”

Slappey is also very concerned about the suicide statistics among young people today, and that it is the second leading cause of death for people between the ages of 15-24.  

“More than anything, what I want most to convey is that these young people aren’t alone,” he says, adding that he hears that more than anything else from young people today. “That comes from feeling not heard. Who’s talking to these kids? Who’s there for them?”

Slappey says that one of the first things he told his board was that they had to find other ways of monetizing this because he will not charge young adults or their families for the knowledge. FocusUp is funded primarily through sponsorships, fundraising, and donations. “It’s amazing how quickly people came out to support this idea when I started it, and the amount of people that were willing to give their time and energy to this project was astounding to me,” Slappey says of FocusUp’s board members. 

FocusUp’s curriculum focuses on three pillars of education: Life Skills, Soft Skills and Introspective Learning. The program offers two options to its students. The first is a virtual resource library through their website, in which students can watch videos of interviews (based on questions from local young adults) with local professionals on topics like Credit, Taxes, Budgeting, and Job Interviews. They even cover issues such as Nutrition and the Best Way to Handle Yourself during a Police Traffic Stop. 

Featuring over thirty videos, the site will also have a section where young adults have the opportunity to discuss topics that they find to be particularly pressing in their lives, like Road Rage, Littering, Online Trolling and how the community reacts when they see a young person doing these things. The library will be free to anyone who simply goes to the website, fills out a form, and signs up. 

Photo credit: Focus Up Charleston

The other option is that of weekly mentorships. “I start the mentorship by saying one thing: ‘What do you want? What is your goal?’” Slappey says. “If they go ‘I don’t know,’ well, then I know where to start.” He tries to help the mentees achieve their goals by highlighting the steps that will lead them there. For instance, if they want a good-paying job, they need to improve their communication skills and practice interviewing. Slappey begins by having his pupils fill out questionnaires about their skills and goals, and establishing what their current status is and what is most needed.

Slappey discusses one of his mentees, who came to him for help in starting her first bank account. She had been working for six months, and had been cashing her paychecks and keeping the cash in her room. He also commented that he’d heard of some third-grade students returning to school after Covid who could no longer hold their pencil properly. “It’s so disheartening, which is why organizations like mine are so needed right now,” he says. “Ten years from now, when those kids are entering the workforce, they’re going to feel even more behind.” 

After the yearlong program ends, FocusUp graduates will be able to add this achievement to their resumes and job applications in the future. “It means that these people are going to be really good employees and really good to work with,” Slappey explains. “Everyone that graduates from our program is going to be qualified to get an entry level job. They’re not going to not show up for work, or show up late, or show up in bedroom slippers. They know what is appropriate for business, because they’ve been taught that.”

For his mentorships, Slappey has lofty aspirations. “My projective goal is 20,000 young adults in ten years,” he says. “That’s a very specific number for a very specific reason.” He says that by their tenth year, that would be 6,000 people per year to counteract the 6,000 kids in Charleston that drop out of high school every year. He also hopes to spread FocusUp to other locations, and hopefully someday, have a presence in every city across the country. 

For more information on FocusUp Charleston, visit their website: www.focusupcharleston.com