Integration of community and government resources to implement a brief HIV testing intervention using community health workers (CHWs)

PrideFest, an annual gay pride event held in Milwaukee, WI, includes an area where community organizations promote healthy behaviors. Most HIV testing outreaching MSM have had moderate success. City and State Health Departments contracted Diverse and Resilient to develop, implement, and deploy an HIV testing intervention to increase testing among young Black MSM (YBMSM).

The intervention included the development of a curriculum, recruitment, training, and deployment of CHWs the festival. The curriculum combined the transtheoretical model and motivational interviewing skills and it was supplemented with basic safer-sex education skills. The CHWs were recruited from within the community, focusing on YBMSM. They received 4.5 hours of training that included theory and practice. In all, 64 CHWs were recruited and 41 completed the full training and were approved to work.

Training was considered part of the intervention because most of the CHWs were part of the target population themselves. CHWs made a total of 879 contacts; the intervention resulted in a 42.5% increase in the number of HIV tests conducted from the previous year. This increase represents a 52.6% increase in testing of people under 25 year-old and an 85.1% increase in the testing of African Americans. The presentation will focus on the content of the curriculum and training, and the lessons learned from implementing our intervention. We will also showcase the materials developed for the program. Our aim is to highlight the basic elements of the intervention so other organizations may customize the intervention and apply it to their own setting.