How Stellantis' SAND BRG took 30 employees to Ghana

The trip in one line

In 2024, Stellantis' Black BRG — SAND (Stellantis African Ancestry Network Diaspora) — became the first ERG in the company's history to take an international trip together: ~30 employees on the ground in Ghana. Ty Levette, who runs all 11 of Stellantis' BRGs plus the Motor Citizens volunteerism program, led the design. This is her playbook.

"Having intention is the overarching theme to anything you do from an ERG perspective. It's critical."

1. Start with a clear purpose

Tie the trip to the ERG's mission and to company values — both, not one or the other.

• ERG mission fit: SAND's mission already centered cultural appreciation and bringing cultural values into the workplace. Ghana made that tangible.
• Company values fit: Stellantis was actively talking about globalism (Chrysler + Fiat + Peugeot). A trip across the Atlantic was the value in action, not a side project.

If you can't articulate both threads in one sentence, the trip won't survive the first budget conversation.

2. Get leadership buy-in early — and high

SAND went all the way to the CEO and COO for sign-off. The VP of DEI was on the trip, so that yes was built in. They also looped in Legal before any external comms.

What got approved:

• Travel under the SAND/Stellantis brand (branded shirts, social posts)
• Use of ERG channels and company comms to recruit
• A site visit to the Stellantis assembly facility in Ghana that builds vehicles for the EMEA market

What did not get approved (and they didn't ask for):

• Company funding. Every traveler self-funded. That was the deal that made the rest of it possible.

"Position it as a developmental opportunity. Be clear on the ROI before someone asks you 'y'all doing what?'"

3. Invite intentionally — not just leaders

This is where most "leadership trips" quietly fail. SAND made the explicit call that this was not a leadership trip:

• Open to anyone in SAND, from first-week hires to multi-decade veterans
• Senior leaders came (head of global design, two SVPs, a VP) but were not the audience
• Family members were welcome

Mix of tenure in the room is what turned it from a junket into a development moment.

4. Budget realistically — and early

Cost is the #1 reason people self-select out. SAND attacked that head-on:

• Partnered with Certified Africa to run a long-term payment plan so people weren't asked to absorb the cost in two months
• Published a full cost picture up front, not just airfare + hotel: visas, immunizations, on-the-ground transportation, and market spend (because nobody walks through a Ghanaian market and buys nothing)

Treat the price tag as a design problem, not a disclaimer.

5. Ground the group before they leave

This was Ty's favorite part of the planning, and it's the move most companies skip.

Pre-trip programming included:

• Two history sessions with a Ghanaian-born former professor of hers who's written textbooks on the country — heritage, politics, then-and-now
• Language basics in Twi (one of Ghana's major languages) — enough to greet, thank, navigate
• A dinner at a West African restaurant in metro Detroit so the food wasn't a surprise
• A shared reading list and download pack
• Emotional prep for the visit to the slave dungeons — one of the most significant sites in the African American narrative, and not something you want people encountering cold

"Get them not just understanding what they're doing — get them excited."

6. Tie heritage to the business while you're there

Heritage moments and business moments lived on the same itinerary:

• Site visit to the Stellantis (Peugeot) assembly plant in Ghana — seeing colleagues build vehicles for European, African, and Asian markets with a fraction of the automation U.S. plants use
• Hands-on time with local employees, who treated their work with visible pride
• Daily reflection at dinner — every night, the group answered "What hit you today? What's still sitting with you?"

Pairing the cultural with the operational is how a leader walks away with both a personal story and something to bring to their next quarterly review.

7. Plan the return before you leave

This is the lesson SAND would do differently next time.

"We didn't really do a whole lot with it after we got back. Begin with the end in mind."

Decide upfront:

• Who is sharing what, on which channel, by when? (All-hands? Intranet? BRG-only?)
• Is there a follow-on initiative? A second cohort? A different BRG running their own?
• What gets captured in the moment? Photo, video, written reflection — assigned to specific people, not "whoever happens to."

If you don't decide before the plane lands back home, the energy evaporates inside two weeks.

The shortest version

Clear purpose. Exec buy-in early. Open invite. Honest budget. Real pre-trip grounding. Business stitched into the heritage. A return plan written before takeoff.

"I do have a lot of gray hairs that have sprouted up from that trip. But I would definitely do it again."