On October 7, 2025, Stephen Hill, national speaker and founder of Speak Sobriety, spoke at South Windsor High School and at the South Windsor Community Center to spread awareness about mental health and substance use prevention. The event was sponsored by South Windsor Human Services and South Windsor Opioid Settlement Committee.
Hill is renowned nationwide for his ability as a motivational speaker. He speaks frequently on the aforementioned issues of substance use prevention and mental health, making appearances at over 1,000 venues. His venues typically include schools, organizations, and drug free community coalitions.
Hill’s speeches are heartfelt and genuine, drawing from his own personal experiences.
“I share my story about my own personal struggle with mental health, substance use, and ultimately the journey to recovery. My focus is on prevention and early intervention,” Hill said.
Hill has been speaking for about ten years, trying to make an impact on his younger audiences who might be more susceptible to falling into peer pressure and drugs.
Freshman Caleb Carlson, who attended Mr. Hill’s speech during a school assembly, was touched by his words.
“The thing that resonated with me the most from his speech was how many people lost their lives to this disease,” Carlson told The Prowl.
Thanks to Mr. Hill, Carlson, and likely countless others who listened to Mr. Hill, now possess a better understanding of the horrors of substance abuse and drugs.
This is why Hill founded his organization, Speak Sobriety, in June 2016. He wanted to advocate for substance use prevention, sharing his message to others in an attempt to prevent them from experiencing what he went through.
Seeing what Hill has accomplished today, many would not think that he was once a struggling drug addict who hardly graduated high school.
He suffered from substance use disorder, and as a result, he lost friends, put his family through hardship, and was arrested various times. It was not until he entered an extended care program for individuals like himself that suffered from this disorder that he began his journey to recovery.
With patience, hard work, and help from others, he pushed through his adversities and became sober, putting an end to the difficulties that addiction had caused him for all those years.
Now, Mr. Hill aspires to do the same for other struggling addicts through his organization and his speeches.
“In years past, we would send people addicted to drugs to jail or to prison, and now we’re trying to be part of the solution and just getting people the help and the resources they need. Instead of just punishing them, my goal is to get people help and get them rehabilitated,” Hill told The Prowl.
Besides trying to help those who are already struggling with addiction, Hill seeks to prevent individuals from falling into the pit of addiction in the first place. He works to do so by advocating for substance use prevention as he speaks to deter people, especially younger groups, from taking drugs.
These efforts have likely found success in scores of audience members across his venues, one of whom is freshman Aashray Veerapaneni.
“[Stephen] inspired me and showed me the difference between his life when he was not sober and when he was sober, and it showed me the two different paths I could go down,” Veerapaneni said.
Hill is a champion of substance use prevention, and amidst the ongoing drug epidemic in the United States, each person he can dissuade from falling into drugs is a major victory.
One can prevent themselves from falling into substance abuse by practicing key skills, such as learning to ignore peer pressures, becoming more aware of the detriments of drugs, and developing the strength to say “no” to anyone who offers drugs.
These skills might appear to some as trivial, but their importance cannot be overstated, for while Mr. Hill’s efforts through his organization and speeches are outstanding, they mean nothing if people, especially younger individuals, fail to heed his words.
