How Schools Use Grants to Hire Substance Abuse Speakers

Many schools and organizations want to bring in powerful substance abuse speakers, but budgets often stand in the way. The good news? There are grants available that can cover the cost of hosting prevention assemblies. Sites like SAMHSA.gov/grants make it easier than ever to apply for funding that supports drug and alcohol prevention programs for youth.

These grants exist for a reason: prevention works. By reaching students before they experiment with risky behaviors, schools can drastically reduce the chances of addiction, dropouts, and other long-term consequences. Substance abuse education empowers students with the knowledge and confidence to make healthier choices, and inviting top national speaker Fabian Ramirez can make that education unforgettable.

Fabian’s keynote, “Think Twice, Live Once,” has impacted students across the country by mixing relatable storytelling with a powerful prevention message. When students hear him speak, they don’t just sit through another lecture, they lean in, laugh, and walk away with lessons that can save lives. Writing Fabian Ramirez into a grant proposal ensures your students get access to a message that sticks long after the assembly ends.

Applying for grants may sound intimidating, but it’s simpler than many realize. School administrators, parent groups, and community organizations can team up to identify funding opportunities that align with prevention initiatives. Once awarded, these funds can be used to host Red Ribbon Week speakers for school assemblies, prevention workshops, and keynote events. Imagine the impact if every student in your school heard Fabian’s message at no cost to your district budget.

Event planners and educators should think strategically: prevention dollars are out there, and they are meant to be used. When crafting your grant proposal, highlight the importance of prevention education. Be sure to outline your plan to bring in a nationally recognized speaker, and emphasize how Fabian’s program addresses real student challenges.

Students today face peer pressure, stress, and influences that didn’t exist a generation ago. Proactive prevention through grants ensures they get the tools and inspiration needed to resist those pressures. By applying for available funding and naming Fabian Ramirez in your proposal, you’re not just hiring a speaker, you’re investing in the future of your students.

Take the step today: explore grant options, apply, and let Fabian help deliver the life-saving message of Think Twice, Live Once.

Grant Funding Resource Box: Bring Fabian Ramirez to Your School

• 💡 Explore Opportunities: Visit SAMHSA Grants to see current funding programs for substance abuse prevention.
• 📝 Apply with Purpose: Highlight your school’s commitment to prevention and write Fabian Ramirez into your proposal as your chosen keynote speaker.
• 🎤 Maximize Impact: Use grant funds to host assemblies like Fabian’s “Think Twice, Live Once”—a program that resonates with students and supports lasting change.
• ✅ Invest in Prevention: These grants are designed for schools and organizations like yours. Don’t leave money on the table, apply today and bring Fabian to your campus.

Red Ribbon Week Speakers | Drug Prevention Assemblies

When schools and colleges plan for Red Ribbon Week speakers, the goal is simple: bring in someone who can inspire students to make healthy choices and avoid the traps of drugs and alcohol. That’s where Fabian Ramirez comes in. As one of the top substance abuse speakers in the nation, Fabian has earned a reputation for connecting with young audiences in a way that is authentic, powerful, and unforgettable.

His signature keynote, “Think Twice, Live Once,” is a must-hear presentation for students of all ages. In this talk, Fabian combines storytelling, humor, and practical advice to challenge students to pause before making decisions that could derail their future. The title itself delivers a message that resonates: life is too valuable to gamble with risky choices.

Event planners searching for Red Ribbon Week speakers often struggle to find someone who isn’t just lecturing, but truly engaging. Fabian bridges that gap by speaking from the heart while also addressing real-world pressures students face every day. Whether it’s peer influence, the lure of experimentation, or the stress that drives some toward unhealthy habits, Fabian’s approach equips students with the tools to say no and choose a brighter path.

Schools and colleges also appreciate that bringing in a speaker like Fabian Ramirez is not just an investment in an assembly, it’s an investment in prevention. With plenty of grant funds available for drug prevention education, districts don’t have to shoulder the cost alone. Federal, state, and local grants are specifically earmarked for substance abuse awareness, making it easier for schools to book dynamic Red Ribbon Week speakers who make a lasting impact.

Fabian has spoken in all 50 states, inspiring students and empowering educators to continue the conversation long after the assembly is over. His presence during Red Ribbon Week can set the tone for an entire school year of awareness, resilience, and positive decision-making.

If you’re an event planner looking to book a speaker who will capture attention, deliver a life-changing message, and fit within available grant funding, Fabian Ramirez should be at the top of your list. Don’t settle for just another assembly. Choose one of the nation’s top Red Ribbon Week speakers and give your students the message they need to hear: Think Twice, Live Once.

Red Ribbon Week Activities and Resources

Is your school going to celebrate Red Ribbon Week this October?

As you know every year schools across America wear red ribbons to show their support to remain drug free. In fact, the last week of October has been coined, Red Ribbon Week. During the week, schools host a series of Red Ribbon Week activities for students to celebrate living a drug free life.

One of the best ways to get your students fired up during the campaign is to hire red ribbon week speakers to address the issues with drugs and alcohol. Students love to hear from others who have experience with drugs and talk about why drug prevention is so important. School assemblies are the best avenue to share information to the whole school at one time.

Do school assemblies work? Yes. It’s proven that difficult information delivered via a guest speaker is one of the best ways for students to be attentive and receptive to difficult conversations.

Having a school assembly is also a great way to relay solid information to the entire student body. When you add a speaker who uses comedy, it drives the message further.

In addition to bringing in a guest speaker, schools can have red ribbon week activities that students can do during the week. For example, schools have done contests during the week to get everyone involved. You can see who can decorate their door the best. Another idea is to have hallway projects that each class can do.

You want the kids to take action so you may consider purchasing or creating a banner with a drug free slogan and have all the kids sign it so that they can pledge to be drug free. The signed banner can hang in the hallway as a reminder of their pledge.

If you would like more information about hiring a speaker for Red Ribbon Week, please contact us. Learn more about the history of Red Ribbon Week so your school is ready to celebrate in October.

National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse (NCADA)

NCADA

Recently, I had the honor of being the keynote speaker for the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse (NCADA) in St. Louis, Missouri. I must first say that these folks are high class. The event planner had interns working the event and they really made the students who attended feel important.

The theme of the event was YOUth MVP and I told students that it’s time for them to stand out from all the other students by making right choices and staying away from drugs.

I made it a point to say that everyone tells students to just say no to drugs. This is good advice but I take it a step further and tell students what to say yes to. Let me explain. If you can get students to say yes to graduating high school, they will most likely say no to drugs. The mind of a human being is constantly competing to act a certain way and that’s why it’s important to help student know what they are saying yes to.

Try this, the next time you talk to a teenager, ask them what they say yes to in life, what are their goals. Then tell them that if they say yes to that goal, then what do they have to say no to and see what they say. Helping students understand their YES will keep them from the straight and narrow path.

I’d love to come to your school to help your students say YES to all their goals. Lately, I’ve been hired as a speaker for Indian tribal schools. Every time I speak to counselors in these communities, I hear about the amount of depression and drug usage among teens and parents alike. I’d love nothing more, than to go into these tribal communities and share a message of hope and prevention.

Red Ribbon Week Logos

The following Red Ribbon Week logos can be saved and used on your activity sheets or letters to parents, powerpoint presentations, websites. Please DO NOT use logos to make tshirts or put on any product that can be sold.

Click Here to Download Red Ribbon week logos (1 MB Zip file)

Right click any of the logos below and select “save target as” to save images to your computer.

Formats: JPEG | PNG

Formats: JPEG | PNG

Formats: JPG | PNG

Please let us know if you are needing special permission to use these logos outside of normal school activities by contacting us.

Keep in mind that Fabian Ramirez is one of the most sought after red ribbon week speakers for schools. Contact us today to see if Fabian has dates available to speak at your next school assembly.

Click here to purchase Red Ribbon Week videos

Drunk Goggles | Drinking and Driving High School Assembly

Speaker wearing Drunk Goggles

Recently, Upper Darby High School in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, hosted a drinking and driving assembly after school in their gymnasium. Fliers were posted all around school leading up to the event and over 300 teenage students voluntarily attended. Groups like MADD and SADD are known for having events like this to keep students from making unwise decisions.

The event began with a traffic and accident attorney talking about the new Pennsylvania law that states that people cannot text on their phones while driving.

After the attorney, students listened to a drug and alcohol prevention speaker, Fabian Ramirez, who took the teens on a journey into the effects that drugs and alcohol have on the body. “Teens get drunk twice as fast as adults”, Ramirez said after stating that the average teenage brain takes 20 years to fully develop and any psychoactive drug including alcohol can curtail the developmental process. Ramirez went on to say that, “the brain working like computer software does, but alcohol acts like a virus in which is switches the wire in your brain causes the normal senses in your body to lose normal function abilities”.

Ramirez took time to educate teens about alcohol going as far as demonstrating what happens when one binge drinks and gets alcohol poisoning. Students were grossed out when he talked about how drunks are not able to control their vomit and can pass out before they can ask for help. Since alcohol takes a while to enter the blood stream, teens that drink do not feel the after effects that beer and hard liquor have on the body until after they arrived home. This is why there are numerous cases of teens who have been found dead in their rooms after a long night of drinking. Still students hate the fact that they have to wait until the age of 21 to legally drink.

Upper Darby High School did a fantastic job of creating a drinking course in the gym. Students were able to wear drunk goggles during the event and get in a wheelchair and try to navigate through orange rubber cones. The majority were unsuccessful hitting cones along the way which could have been pedestrians in real life. After the drunk goggles were taken off, students were still seeing spots and not able to fully gain vision right away. Many were heard commenting on how hard it was to focus. That was the focus of the day, to educate teens on alcohol abuse so they think twice before drinking when they are not supposed to.

Drug Awareness Day | Laurel High School | Montana

The student council of Laurel High School held a Drug Awareness Day and invited youth motivational speaker Fabian Ramirez along with Montana’s Attorney General. More than 20 motivational speakers from different agencies were invited to speak at workshops throughout the day. Fabian kicked off the day by using humor to communicate the harmful effects of using drugs and alcohol.

Ramirez used the analogy of how the brain works the same way as basic operating software that a computer has. The more experiences we have in life, the more our brain develops, as if it is installing software. We grow by using our 5 senses: Touch, Smell, Sight, Taste and Hearing. Our brain develops over a 20 year period, and anything we do to stop the growth of our brain can be detrimental.

When teens use psychoactive drugs such as alcohol or marijuana, their brain could skip a step it needs to develop properly. Drugs mess with the basic functions that brains have and it causes it to go wild. Ramirez said it’s like a computer having a virus, it effects what it was created to do. Fabian used the example of smoking marijuana. When a person smokes, it doesn’t matter if they just finished eating at a buffet, their brain will tell them that they are hungry. This is why teens often get the munchies after smoking.

The scariest part of using psychoactive drugs is that they cause your heart rate to increase and if your body doesn’t know how to control your heart rate, it could stop beating. Marijuana causes the blood vessels in the eyeball to expand. What happens is arteries in the eyeball expands making the eyes to appear bloodshot and the eyelids will want to shut. This is why Glaucoma patients are prescribed marijuana to smoke. When teens abuse this drug, it causes them to have mood changes, often feeling food with constant laughter.

We must continue to educate teens on why staying away from drug usage is important not only during their teens years but throughout their lifetime. If you are a school administrator, you may consider having anti-drug activities and hiring a Red Ribbon Week Speaker every October to help reduce the demand for drugs in your community.

Fabian is an energetic, humorous and very talented speaker who uses his experience to connect with young people. His message is strong and clear, and I highly recommend him! – Daniel J. Dunlap, Special Agent

SADD | Students Against Destructive Decisions | Hutto High School

The SADD chapter at Hutto High School in Hutto, TX were in charge of having high school assemblies. The theme for the day was anti-bullying, more specifically, cyberbullying.

They designed their own shirts which on the front say, Stop Bullying within a stop sign and underneath it they have the Like Button like you would see on Facebook. In the back of the shirt they have the slogan that they came up with, “Think before you click”. Many in the auditorium were wearing the shirts to show their support of the SADD chapter on campus. These programs help students take initiative at school and it help them take leadership positions on campus.

The chapter was created by one of the teachers on campus, but it’s really a student led program. For example, the students created a cyberbullying video and showed it to the student body at the beginning of each school assembly. The video will also be submitted into a nationwide contest where chapters from across America will submit their videos as well.

As you can see, the SADD organization has done a fantastic job at getting students and teachers involved in spreading the word on campuses about how to keep student from making destructive decisions. They also make it a point to let students know the consequences that their decisions can have on themselves, their families and the people around them.

Fabian Ramirez was the keynote speaker at each assembly at Hutto High School and he was able to talk about how Love is great than hate (Love>Hate). He basically taught students how to implement the Golden Rule in their every day lives and when they show love and respect to others, they instantly become leaders because people will want to follow them. I recommend hiring Fabian to be the next anti-bullying speaker at your next school assembly.

SADD Chapter at Hutto HS

I’m a National Youth Speaker, Let’s Partner to Reach Youth

I’ll be sharing a lot of information and resources with you as you look into different speakers. My expertise is anti-bullying and anti-drug prevention.For example, every year I’m asked to speak at schools during Red Ribbon Week, here is NBC News coverage from my time in Casper, Wyoming.

Also, as you may know, October is National Anti-Bullying Month,

and schools across the country scramble to have an emphasis at their school to help address the issue.

I also partner with non-profits and organizations that reach teens. I spoke at march Against Bullying in San Antonio, TX.

The students were so excited to have me come to their school. I signed a pledge against bullying at the end of every school assembly. This day was made possible through the help of the school’s PTA.

I often get asked about my speaking fees. I try to keep my integrity rates consistent.

Here’s a tip to help fund my program:

The biggest way to afford my program is to split the cost between two schools in the same district. Let’s say there are two middle schools in the same district wanting a speaker. I would work with one person to finalize a speaking agreement. On the date agreed upon, I would speak at one school in the morning and the second school in the afternoon.

Red Ribbon Week | Safe and Drug Free Schools and Communities Act

Red Ribbon Week is a critical part of the Safe and Drug Free Schools and Communities Act. Due to the act, communities have tried their best to tackle drug prevention from different angles. Sadly, too many costly, inefficient efforts utilized by most schools fail to make a big enough impact because they aren’t engaging enough to the students.

How can you get your students to really feel inspired and motivated to take the pledge to be drug free unless you can get them to understand it on an emotional level? The answer is Fabian Ramirez.

Fabian’s ability to inspire youth to reach higher and lead better lives is astounding. He isn’t just motivation only, he also provides your students with the realities of the consequences that will most likely face them if they choose to allow drugs into their lives. Keep in mind that Red Ribbon Week usually takes place at the end of October so be sure to book Fabian well in advance.

Fabian also has experience speaking at schools during Cultural Awareness Week, Health Day and Hispanic Heritage Month. Some of his specialties are speaking about bullying, dropout prevention and youth leadership.

Funding School Programs

Are you worried about the costs of having a speaker come and speak to your students? You don’t need to be any longer because depending on your theme, federal grant money might be available to cover any expenses.

For example, Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act (SDFSCA) might approve a funding request for a speaker who addresses alcohol and drug prevention, sexual abstinence, tobacco use, teen pregnancy, gangs, crime and violence prevention. All of these are topics Fabian covers with incredible effects on the students.

To start the process of getting the grant money, check with your school district or federal government office to find out who is dispensing these funds in your state. It will be grant money well spent as your student body responds and takes on a new fresh perspective. You may also ask your school if they have student activity funds available to host an assembly. All you need to do now is simply request an application form from them and get the ball rolling.

The next time you need a guest speaker for an assembly or a youth event where you want to truly make a deep impact that will effect the lives of your students, look no further than Fabian Ramirez.

Are you considering having Fabian Ramirez to come and speak to your school, but are not sure about when or on what topic? Make sure to come up with some creative ways to utilize his expertise and motivation to help make the most of your school assembly.

Contact Fabian today about the possibility of him coming to your school or youth conference.