Empowering Leaders to Drive Change Through Game-Based Simulation

The Youth Law Center participates in utilizing the nationally recognized Youth Experiential Learning Simulation (YExLS), a transformative experience offered by Youth Law Center, global law firm Baker McKenzie and the Global Initiative on Justice with Children. Developed in partnership with youth, and designed to shift how systems understand and respond to youth, YExLS uses immersive, game-based learning to help participants experience the complex legal and emotional landscape that system-impacted youth navigate every day.

Participants consistently report that YExLS not only deepens empathy but equips them with concrete tools to improve systems. As one advocate noted, “This changed how I think about my own decision-making and how we show up for youth.”

By placing youth voice and lived experience at the center of systems training, YExLS is helping build a generation of leaders who are not just reforming systems—but reimagining them.