This August, Operation Outbreak launched its second fund in partnership with ChangeX, an online social innovation platform that connects communities with funding and resources to bring proven ideas to life.
Through the new fund, 500 educators will receive financial and technical support to bring Operation Outbreak simulations to their classrooms, significantly expanding access to experiential outbreak preparedness education across the United States.
Operation Outbreak simulations give participants the opportunity to experience the dynamics of an infectious disease outbreak firsthand. By turning classrooms and other learning environments into simulated outbreaks, the program helps educators engage students with concepts of infectious disease and public health in an interactive and memorable way.
The new ChangeX fund builds on an initial pilot established in fall 2025. Through that first round of funding, educators and community leaders launched more than 20 Operation Outbreak simulations across three countries, demonstrating the potential of the ChangeX model to help communities adopt and implement simulations locally.
With the second fund, Operation Outbreak and ChangeX are scaling that model substantially, with a particular focus on reaching educators across the United States. Participating educators will receive resources and financial support to help them plan and run simulations in their own learning environments.
The expansion represents an important step toward making outbreak preparedness education more accessible to schools and communities and giving more students the opportunity to explore how infectious diseases spread, how individual decisions shape an outbreak, and how communities can respond.
Educators interested in bringing an Operation Outbreak simulation to their classroom or community can learn more about the program and apply for funding through the ChangeX Idea Page.
Media Contact:
Sellers Hill
+1 (857) 858-5798
sellers@operationoutbreak.org
www.operationoutbreak.org
About Operation Outbreak, Inc.
Operation Outbreak is a nonprofit organization that uses experiential learning and outbreak simulations to build practical outbreak preparedness skills among students, professionals, and policymakers worldwide.