Leading questions: Heather Petch, Hact

What is Hact? Hact is a small charity that helps [social] housing providers to improve housing for those in poor and marginalised communities, by helping them plan more effectively. We are funded through government contracts and housing providers. Why is this a special year for Hact? This year, we are celebrating our golden jubilee. The charity [originally called the Housing Associations' Charitable Trust] was created by the National Housing Federation, and gave out small grants to organisations such as Circle 33. Over 50 years, we and the sector have changed and we have moved to supporting innovation and sharing learning across the sector. This year, there will be numerous events taking place. At next week's Chartered Institute of Housing conference we are launching a competition. We want housing providers to enter proposals on three themes: offering new opportunities to tenants and residents, building bridges between different communities, and sharing power between professionals, housing organisations and communities. We will select eight to 10 of the best and work with them to take their projects forward. How long have you worked at Hact? For 10 years. Before that, I was working in Leeds and London on two regeneration initiatives supporting community organisations. My background is in housing and welfare. I worked for Camden council on welfare rights, developing anti-poverty strategies, and I've had periods of freelance work. I came to Hact initially in a short-term role, to undertake the final stages of potentially establishing a partnership with another charity, but that didn't happen and I ended up staying on. What changes have you made to the organisation? It was clear to me when I joined that Hact was not focused on homelessness, but on housing and communities and marginalised people. Hact has a real strength in refugee housing and homelessness so I have developed the way we look at housing in terms of place and the way to include people who may otherwise be excluded. What challenges have you faced? Having to cut across the administrative barriers, both internally and externally. I was quite nervous when I came. If I were to rewind those 10 years I would have been tougher about how we allocate resources. What's your leadership style? I like to think I lead by example and through my passion for the vision of the organisation and the way we work. I'm quite a hard taskmaster in some ways, but I think I create a happy environment at the same time – it's about getting that balance. How's your work-life balance? I've struggled with that a bit. I don't have children and I think it's interesting that a lot of female chief executives do end up putting in a lot more work. hact.org.uk/golden-jubilee Details of Small Charity Week at thefsi.org • This article was amended on 22 June 2010. In the original it said small grants were given to organisations including Shelter. This has been corrected.