Gründerstadt Offenbach: Mentoring story Pictocorder

Sitha Reis is studying art at the Offenbach University of Art and Design (HfG). There are many self-employed people in her environment and so she is already following this path as a student. The young woman is socially committed, she questions the social and political role of the HfG in the city of Offenbach and deals with democracy education and opportunities for participation.

After graduating, the graduate designer put her knowledge and skills to good use in the Polytechnische Gesellschaft Foundation's Neighborhood Ambassadors project. Here she teaches young people skills in the areas of artistic project planning and project methods. This enables the younger generation to actively shape their environment with their own ideas and projects.

The dedicated artist uses visual methods to simplify the communication of content and increase learning gains. With visual facilitation and graphic recording, content (spoken or written) can be summarized in a compact and understandable way using painted pictures. The methods can be used in a variety of ways and offer a wide range of possibilities.

Initially, Sitha Reis used visualization and graphic recording for her own learning purposes; it helped her to remember what she had read and heard and made it easier for her to understand. She then began to use the techniques in her art workshops with young people and eventually used them in all her projects. She networked with other graphic recorders and gradually expanded her skills. She worked in software development for three years and illustrated Scrum processes for the company (Scrum is an agile development method). She realized "that people can work well with pictures and overviews, it helps us to think and learn." Without further ado, the side job became her main job and today Sitha Reis is a freelance graphic recorder in Offenbach.

She can be booked for a variety of assignments and uses her visualization methods to help with project planning, describing work processes or communicating methods. At conferences and congresses, she uses her images to get to the heart of what has been said and summarizes various contributions as a summary. "In principle, visual facilitation is a visual language and can be applied to any topic and project," says Reis. "My core area is democracy education; I work with groups at the interface of art and social work."

Since this year, Sitha Reis has been taking part in the Ment2Be mentoring program, a cooperation project between the city of Offenbach and the educational institution KIZ to support founders in Offenbach. As a young founder, she receives support from an experienced self-employed person. Katharina Ziegler works as a coach for companies on the topics of communication and team development, she is a co-founder of the YNEO (yneo.org) consultancy network and has been a volunteer mentor at Ment2Be since 2021. "I find mentoring incredibly helpful," says Reis, "making a roadmap and sorting out ideas with experienced people is great, and in a setting that encourages and builds trust. I can now walk this path in company and am no longer alone. This has given me stability and peace of mind."