Program and Activity Guides
Program Guides
Group Starting Guide
Everything you need to know about getting a new SSA Chapter off the ground!
The SSA Semester
Here's a one-page resource to help you plan out your semester, highlighting key recurring events and activities that will help you grow your chapter like a pro.
Activity Guides
Ask An Atheist Day
Ask an Atheist Day is an opportunity to engage with others on your campus so they can ask questions about secular identities and values.
Banned Books Week
Banned Books Week is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read. Banned Books Week was launched in 1982 in response to a sudden surge in the number of challenges to books in schools, bookstores and libraries. Banned Books Week is a time of shared support for the freedom to seek and to express ideas, even those some consider unorthodox or unpopular. Check out our resources for event ideas to have for Banned Books Week!
Cesar Chavez Day of Service & Learning
Cesar E. Chavez gave our nation and each of us a unique example to live our lives by. His selfless dedication for farm worker and worker rights, economic justice, civil rights, environmental justice, peace, nonviolence, empowerment of the poor and disenfranchised, is a monumental legacy that will inspire all and the generations to come.
Darwin Day
Darwin Day is a celebration to commemorate the anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin on February 12, 1809. The day is used to highlight Darwin's contribution to science and to promote science in general.
Discussion Topic Guides
If you’re just starting your Secular Student Alliance Chapter then you’ll need some fresh ideas to kick off the semester. Even if you’re an established chapter, it can be difficult to come up with new topics every week for the duration of the academic calendar. These meeting topic discussion guides will provide you with some materials and discussion questions that you can use to spur dialogue and conversation at your meetings
Graveyard of the Gods
Graveyard of the Gods is a farewell to humanity’s forgotten deities. It is an opportunity to demonstrate that there are thousands upon thousands of gods that have been worshiped throughout history and most of them are no longer worshiped. The Graveyard of the Gods activity is not an attack on religion, but rather a very visible way to demonstrate why Blaise Pascal's infamous Wager doesn't work: it assumes only one possible god on which to place your bets. Visit the page now to download our activity guide, custom made signs, and to learn more about the event itself.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service
Martin Luther King, Jr, Day is observed on the third Monday in January.
Countless local governments and schools use the day as their primary day of service, and thus there are almost always nearby opportunities for participation.
National Day of Reason
A consortium of leaders from within the community of reason endorsed the idea of a National Day of Reason. This observance is held in parallel with the National Day of Prayer, on the first Thursday in May each year. The goal of this effort is to celebrate reason—a concept all Americans can support—and to raise public awareness about the persistent threat to religious liberty posed by government intrusion into the private sphere of worship.
Carl Sagan Day
Carl Sagan Day is a celebration of the life and teachings of Carl Sagan, whose many books, television appearances (most notably Cosmos), and NASA projects influenced a generation of thinkers.