My name is Peter “Matt” Speziale. I am the founder of Stephanie’s Courage, but this is not who I have always been. In fact, quite the opposite. I come from a very loving family where drugs were not a part of life, not even a small one, and yet I gave my life to them. I began selling drugs in the 6th grade, and continued doing so for the next 25 years of my life. I preyed on the addictions of others for simple greed, and to fuel my own addictions. These choices led to being kicked out of a great college my senior year, as well as causing me to lose great careers in real estate and life and health insurance because I just did not care. It led to federal prison, and 2 years after my release, it led to state prison, and that is when it all began to change. The individual who wore the wire on me was a close friend and I realized he would not have done it if it was not for the drugs, and I played a role in that, so I decided to forgive him. Two days after this decision I was informed that he had died from an overdose, I was not able to tell him that I had no ill will towards him.
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While in prison I had a spiritual awakening and I began to truly see the people I was sharing that prison with and realizing how much intelligence and talent was within those walls and my heart broke. Hearing the people that I use to look up to and wanted to be like telling me that the way we had been living was the wrong choice and that if they could do it over they would not take the same path made me realize that if they had said these things to me when I was 12, I too may have taken a different path.
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This is when the idea of a Prehab foundation took root in my mind. I found myself more free in prison than I had been in decades. Prison gave me a unique opportunity. One that most people do not get because most people do not go to prison, and most who do, do not take advantage of the abundance of time. It is an excellent opportunity to get to know who you really are and what you need to change in order to have a better future. This realization gave root to the other aspect of Stephanie’s Courage. To help those going to or already in prison use their time in a positive way, and then helping them return to the world with the aid they need to help them succeed in a new way of life.

This is a brand new non profit foundation with allot of work ahead of us, but it will be a light in the dark for anyone wanting to have a better life then the one that drugs has given them, and it will give tireless effort in helping children realize the true dangers and consequences of choices involving drugs. This will not be an easy task considering what we see on the television, on the internet, and hear in the popular music of today, but it is a fight that we are more then willing to fight, and one, we will never stop fighting. Please support us in this endeavor, and help us make the world a little bit better.