Black young men who have sex with men (BYMSM) are the group most disproportionately impacted by HIV in the United States and most in need of efficacious interventions to address community-level factors that increase their vulnerability to HIV. The House Ball Community (HBC) is a distinct social network within the larger BYMSM community that may be particularly vulnerable to social norms and stigma around HIV. This study tailored an evidence-based, community-level popular opinion leader (OL) intervention for use within the HBC. The intervention, called POSSE, was then piloted to evaluate feasibility, acceptability and preliminary efficacy. Recruiting opinion leaders from the community and training them to deliver risk reduction messages was found to be feasible and highly acceptable. Community-level surveys (n=406) were completed over 5 waves of data collection. Overall exposure to the intervention increased across waves. Statistically significant (p < .05) declines were observed for multiple sexual partners, condomless anal intercourse with any male partners and with male partners of unknown HIV status. HIV stigma declined as well, but the trend was not statistically significant.

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