Alicia's event to help parents with ‘GenZ' challenges

A TRAIL-blazing Skibbereen student is organising an event to help parents better understand their teens and the world they live in.

Alicia O’Sullivan from Castlehaven, a 5th year student at Skibbereen Community School (SCS), has set up Generation Z, a project aimed at helping to support parents and guardians of teenagers and young adults. 

Its purpose, she explains, is to invite parents to the conversation and help them to understand the world ’Generation Z’ live in today, and provide them with the information and support they may need to deal with its challenges.

The first Generation Z event takes place in SCS next Thursday, April 11th from 7pm and topics up for discussion include cyber/social media, LGBT and mental health.

Speakers include UCC student Harry McCann, a 20-year-old entrepreneur, who will talk about cyber, internet, and social media. 

Dubliner Kirstyn Donohue, the parent of a transgender child, will give a parent’s perspective on the daily struggles faced by trans and non-binary children.

And James O’Mahony of Kinsale Youth Support Services (KYSS) will speak on youth mental health, and how the KYSS project works. Minister of State TD Jim Daly is also expected to attend. 

Alicia is no stranger to making headlines and was crowned the ESB TechSpacer of the Year, last year. Earlier this year she was crowned the Lions Ireland young ambassador of the 21st century for 2019. As part of that, she’ll represent Ireland, and Skibbereen Lions, in the European final of the same event in Tallin in Estonia in October. 

Alicia first developed the Generation Z concept as her project for the Lions Ireland competition and her motivation was for adults and teens to better understand each other.

Her ambition is to have Generation Z rolled out nationwide and she’s in talks with various organisations including Aware and Jigsaw to realise that.