OTHER SUPPORT
If you are here looking for support that is not about grief but is secular, or if you need grief support and you need support for another struggle, you may find an organization here that meets your needs. The following are all organizations and projects that are secular in nature. Some of them do permit individuals to discuss their own faith, while the organizational leadership remains secular. Those are listed with WPFC for Warning: Possible Faith Content.
Addiction and Recovery
LifeRing is a network of support groups for people who want to live free of alcohol and other addictive drugs. The philosophy of LifeRing is Sobriety, Secularity, Self-Help. The organization runs secular support groups and provides all sorts of other help for staying sober without turing your life or will over to a “higher power.” WPFC
Families, Youth and Students
Camp Quest camps provide a traditional sleepaway summer camp experience for kids 8-17, with a wide range of activities. In addition to traditional summer camp activities, Camp Quest offers educational activities focused on critical thinking, ethics, scientific inquiry, philosophy, and comparative religion. It is particularly geared towards building a community for children from atheist, agnostic, humanist and other freethinking families. Their goal is to provide a place where children can explore their developing worldviews, ask questions, and make friends in an environment that is supportive of critical thinking and skepticism.
The high-quality blog is full of experience, advice, and humor. Even more useful is the list of nearly 50 secular parenting groups.
The Secular Student Alliance supports student groups on college and university campuses and at high schools. They provide assistance with organization, education, and outreach to students and student communities that “promote the ideals of scientific and critical inquiry, democracy, secularism, and human-based ethics.” If you are looking for a secular student group in your area, you can use their Affiliated Campus Group List. The SSA’s Secular Safe Zone Project recruits, organizes and trains adult educators to “create safe spaces in which secular students can question, criticize, and discuss topics and issues important to them.”
Leaving Religion
Recovering From Religion establishes and supports local groups and provide resources for people “from doubting theist to ardent atheist” who are struggling with negative after-effects of religion. They also, “Educate the secular communities about the tremendous need for providing this encouragement and support to people who identify as recovering from religion.” In the works is their Hotline Project which will provide a listening ear and referrals to support services 24-hours-a-day.
“The Clergy Project is a confidential online community for active and former professional clergy/religious leaders who do not hold supernatural beliefs….Currently, the community’s 556 plus members use it to support, network and discuss what it’s like being an unbelieving professional in a religious community or being an unbeliever as ex-clergy in their world.”
Mental Health
The Secular Therapist Project is “an effort to connect secular therapists with clients who prefer a therapist that will use proven, state-of-the-art therapeutic methods that do not involve supernatural or religious elements.” One unique feature is the website’s ability to connect secular clients and secular therapists with each other while preserving anonymity until they are both ready to disclose their identities.