Hi Wendy_S,
at first, I like your idea to guide users through some initial steps of becoming community members and get their profiles staffed. :)
Maybe you could try to add a custom redirect (instead of redirecting to the community homepage) to the users profile/settings pages, where the users then can make use of Lithium's default avatar selection features.
As an other possible solution you could try to develop a customisation (components, APIs) which is included on the profile completion quilt (where the user selects his community username).
Regards,
Christian
