Play. Collect. Advocate: A Ten-Day Master Class on Innovation, Design Thinking and Game Design for Youth Advocacy

What if a game could do more than entertain? What if it could help a community speak up, reveal what people really think, and give decision makers the evidence they need to act?

That question brought 20 participants to Nairobi from 7 to 16 September 2026 for PLAY. COLLECT. ADVOCATE., a Games-Based Innovation Lab for Youth Advocacy. The ten-day lab was part of the Master Class on Innovation Management, Design Thinking and Game Design, run through the Africa Renaissance Hub (ARH) and convened by the Africa Alliance of YMCAs, with support from Y-Global and Brot für die Welt.

Participants came from Y-Global, Youth Peace Makers Tanzania and YMCAs in South Sudan, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Ethiopia, Palestine, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Burundi and Kenya, so the room held a wide mix of contexts, experiences and ideas.

Three words, one idea

The lab's name sums up its approach:

• PLAY: using games to engage people and try out ideas.
• COLLECT: watching, listening and gathering evidence while people play.
• ADVOCATE: turning that evidence into clear asks for decision makers.

This was not a coding bootcamp. Each country team brought a real advocacy challenge from home and kept working on it for all ten days, testing every new concept against a problem that matters to their community.

From classroom to community

The first days introduced Human-Centred Design, Design Thinking and serious games. Using Climate Games as an example, teams took apart real games for social change, asking who each game was for, what problem it tackled and whether its mechanics actually served its purpose.

Next came the "dual utility" of games: how one game can engage players and generate useful data at the same time without spoiling the fun. Participants also looked at how Artificial Intelligence could help analyse that data and measure impact.

Then the learning moved outside. At iHub Nairobi, participants met practitioners from Kunta Content and saw how a professional games-for-change project goes from idea to finished product. In Dandora, they spent time with the Believers Transformation League (BTL), whose community-transformation work includes using Minecraft to plan improvements to shared spaces. The brief was to listen and observe, not just tour. Each participant photographed one moment that surprised or moved them and explained why they chose it.

From observation to evidence

Back at ARH, the Dandora photos sparked a debrief around three questions: What did we see? What does it tell us? What do we still want to find out? Those observations became focused research questions and observation frameworks.

Teams then used validated learning tools, including persona canvases, prototype hypotheses and learning tables, to turn their ideas into country workplans. Each team also named two to three decision makers it needs to reach.

The pitch

On the final day, each team summed up its challenge and advocacy ask in one sentence. Then they pitched to peers and invited decision makers using a simple four-part structure:

• The advocacy issue
• The proposed game and the data it could collect
• The hypothesis and expected outcome
• The advocacy ask

The lab closed with a ceremony and farewell dinner celebrating participants, facilitators and partners.

Key takeaways

• Start with real problems. Learning sticks when it is tied to a challenge you care about.
• Listen before you build. Understanding people and context comes before designing a solution.
• Games can do double duty. A well-designed game can engage people and produce evidence for change.
• Test, don't assume. Hypotheses and iteration reduce the risk of building the wrong thing.
• Link evidence to action. Strong advocacy ends with a clear, specific ask.

What's next

The Nairobi lab is a starting point. Country teams are taking their workplans home to develop and test their game-based approaches, supported by follow-up coaching, careful documentation and peer exchange. There are also plans to explore a community of practice on games, innovation and advocacy across the network.

Across the YMCA movement, young people are proving that play can be a powerful way to listen, learn and lead change.

PLAY. COLLECT. ADVOCATE. was organised through the Africa Renaissance Hub (ARH) and convened by the Africa Alliance of YMCAs, with support from Y-Global and Brot für die Welt.