Giving back to the community is a noble thing, but a ‘giving back’ that is inspired by a mere feeling of pity for the other folks accomplishes little, in fact, it may do more harm than good. Pity makes you impose yourself on the people and prescribe to them your solutions. Empathy gets you into partnership with the people and communities to solve problems.
Before you embark on any volunteer program, community service, charity project, clarify whether it is driven by pity or empathy.