If you're not sure where your nearest teen shelter is: try contacting YMCA, Social Services or the Homeless Shelter and find out if there's anything near you that focuses on housing at-risk teens.

They may need that bunk bed that's just gathering dust in your garage. Or maybe a bottle of medium brown hair dye for a young girl/guy to bring their hair back to a natural color for a court appearance for emancipation.

I know I've found nice blankets on clearance and stashed them away.

Another idea is: for my oldest daughter's 10th birthday I gave her $25 to $40 and we shopped the Back-To-School sales, picked up a bunch of backpacks and supplies and donated them all to the Boys & Girls Club {there's a hint for our August donation drive, guys and gals}. Maybe you have kids who'd like to put together a gift bag/basket of stuff from your stockpile or a trip to a Dollar Store and donate it as part of their birthday gift? Learning young to think of others is a good thing.

The shelter here will take razors, blow dryers, curling irons, hair straighteners, etc - they just keep some things locked up and the kids have to 'check them out' to use them, for safety.

Air freshners! Plug-Ins, etc, I know they REALLY liked getting those too.

Most Teen Shelters are affiliated with some sort of program that teaches teens how to adjust to adulthood and all the responsibilities - so even old kitchen appliances, dishes, etc might be useful for them to give to teens getting their first apartments.



Please feel free to contact your local Teen Shelter and find out what they accept and post what you find out. If you'd like help locating your local Teen Shelter or similar organization to donate to this month, either post in this thread, or if you'd rather not reveal your location publicly, PM either myself or MyAndPhoenix and with the City/State/Zip we should be able to find you something.

I'd like to gather a few more suggestions for donations and then set goals.

Example: I'd love WUC to donate 1,000 articles of clothing to teen shelters nationwide this month. I'd like to see us donate 100 bottles of nail polish. 100 notebooks. 10 pairs of shoes in good condition.