Phil Talbert is standing in a strip mall parking lot, trying to stay warm on a raw April morning while he promotes COVID-19 shots to the unvaccinated. And he is not having much luck. 

Talbert, 61, is leading a group of vaccine “street teams” that Michigan officials have dispatched to one of America’s poorest, Blackest cities. He is part of a project management and community outreach firm that has worked with the state before ― and in that respect, at least, the vaccination campaign is just another contract job. 

But Talbert is Black and lives about a mile and a half away from this neighborhood, which sits between downtown and the city’s west side. He has watched loved ones battle the disease, including two friends and three family members who lost their fights. “We are all from Detroit,” he says. “This is our community.”

Clipboard in hand, hooded sweatshirt pulled up around his neck, Talbert does his best to project a friendly presence from behind his mask. But just starting conversations is a challenge.