It's a good idea to foster a sense of compassion and community engagement in your child from an early age. However, kids may find traditional methods of volunteering and getting involved in bettering the community boring or difficult to engage with. Here are five unique ways your teen can get involved in charity work.

1. Donate Old Furniture

When people think of charitable donations, they typically think of food, clothing, toiletries and similar items. However, there is a much wider array of things you can donate for others to use. For example, teens may be interested in donating their childhood bedroom furniture sets. Your teen may be interested in bedframe and mattress donations if he or she is switching from a childhood twin bed to a larger frame. These items may not be of use to your family anymore, but they could still be in good shape for someone else to make use of, so you can donate them rather than throwing them out.

2. Get in Touch With Local Nonprofit Organizations And Chapters

You don't need to wait for a volunteer opportunity to come to you to get involved. Many nonprofit organizations and their local chapters really appreciate it when potential volunteers take the initiative to start donating or volunteering. You can contact a local nonprofit organization or chapter of a larger organization. Then, you'll have more opportunities to find programs or causes with that organization you're interested in.

3. Look for Opportunities To Mentor Younger Kids

One of the best types of volunteer work available for teenagers is working with younger children. Sometimes, younger kids are more receptive to assistance, coaching and teaching from older kids and teenagers because they're more authoritative but they're also still kids. It's very common for teens to find opportunities to get involved in youth sports leagues as referees or assistant coaches. If your teen doesn't enjoy sports, then you can seek other volunteer opportunities, such as tutoring or mentoring kids and assisting in community programs geared toward children, such as art classes.

4. Work on Community Projects With Friends

Finding engaging volunteer activities is made easier when there are group activities available. Teenagers tend to enjoy certain activities, such as manual volunteer work, more when they're able to do them with friends. There are many potential opportunities in a community for teens to collaborate on group volunteer work. The majority of these opportunities come in the form of community beautification projects. These can include picking up trash, cleaning the outsides of public buildings, gardening, removing weeds or graffiti and doing simple repair work. Your teen and his or her friends can work together to choose a volunteer activity, make a plan and implement that plan.

5. Raise Awareness for Social Causes

Teenagers tend to care about social and political causes quite a lot. They're at a stage in life where they're beginning to realize how legislation and aspects of society affect them, as well as realizing that they have the potential to change things. Your teen may be interested in raising awareness for things he or she is passionate about, such as climate change, which will help him or her further develop compassion and planning skills. This can be done no matter what kinds of activities your teen is interested in. Raising awareness can involve something as simple as writing to your representatives or as in-depth as organizing awareness events and fundraisers.

Ultimately, the best way to get your teenager involved in charity work in your community is to make sure he or she has opportunities to do things he or she enjoys. If your teen likes animals, for example, then you should focus on finding volunteer work related to animals.