In addition, a peer referral system could be set up during this time frame in order to get more active participation in the on-site HIV testing at Club Pittsburgh. Peer referral has been proven to work in King County (Seattle), Washington - a small condensed city much like Pittsburgh - and would likely yield wide results for the Northside area7. The system is based on trained recruiters, who are offered a monetary incentive for each participant they get tested7. This referral system could also run through and link up with the four gay bars of Pittsburgh as well, and would provide a great outlet for participation in the on-site testing offered in these locations.

 In order to run this peer referral system, Pittsburgh would need to get volunteers for the training of recruiters, and would have to include said volunteers at the testing sites in order to receive the recruits and individuals wishing to be tested. The entire cost of this strategy with the testing would depend on how many people decide to get tested each night, and how many recruits the recruiters can obtain. At a monetary incentive of $20 per recruit, if 3 recruiters brought 3 individuals for testing per night, the cost for one weekends worth of recruiting would be $360. In addition, the actual HIV tests vary from approximately $20 to $46, so assuming the most expensive option, for 9 recruits per night, the total cost for one weekend would be $414. In total, for a weekends-worth of recruiting and testing in the peer referral system, Pittsburgh would have to sacrifice $774. For one year, that cost would increase to $40,428.

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       To help lower expenses, the testing personnel can be taken on a voluntary basis from places like the Pittsburgh AIDS Task Force, or the Gay & Lesbian Community Center of Pittsburgh, in which case they would not need to be paid. The cost of the entire program in Seattle was $103,7527. However, this program paid hourly wages for their training and testing personnel, as well as benefits and database management. In addition, this study tested for STD's as well as HIV7. The program Pittsburgh would employ would be far less complicated, relying on a peer referral system for HIV testing only, with volunteers instead of hourly consultants resulting in a yearly cost of more than half that of Seattle, at roughly $40,500. This estimate seems fairly affordable for Pittsburgh, seeing as they receive more money each year from taxes due to the tremendous income growth occurring within the past 5 years8.

http://www.patf.org/