Originally Posted by brokenrobot
It might also be worth a call to your local bike shops to ask suggestions - I know of two programs here in Colorado that collect old bikes through LBSes and distribute them to low-income kids, along with lessons on how to maintain and ride them safely.
When I owned my shop, we did that. Truthfully, about half of the bikes we collected went to some charity and half, which I considered to be unrideable, went into the dumpster. The Hosteling International Organization in St. Louis runs a program for disadvantaged kids to build their own bike from donated materials. The majority of the bikes they collect, however, wind up being disassembled and sold for scrap metal.