This September, Our Industry is Going to Spread 1,000 Smiles

The Rainy Day Trust is launching Thousand Smiles September,  a sector-wide kindness challenge calling on every business in the home improvement and home enhancement industry to get involved

One act of kindness. One person. Every day in September. It sounds simple, because it is. And that’s exactly the point.

The Rainy Day Trust is today launching Thousand Smiles September, a month-long, sector-wide kindness challenge inviting businesses of all sizes across the home improvement and home enhancement industry to take part. Every participant commits to one intentional act of kindness each day throughout September, logging it through the Habits for Health app by Wellbeing People, watching their team climb a real-time leaderboard, and contributing to a growing collective smiles counter across the whole sector.

Our Sector Has Form for This

Thousand Smiles September is the second challenge in the Rainy Day Trust’s annual industry wellbeing series. The first, Mad March Million, showed what this sector is capable of: 136 people across more than 20 businesses collectively completed 2,277,000 steps in a single month. When our industry moves together, it moves mountains.

This time, the focus is emotional wellbeing. Because steps are powerful, but so is a kind word to a colleague who’s having a hard week.

“Our sector has disproportionately high rates of mental health challenges. But we also have something special, a strong community of people who look out for each other. Thousand Smiles September is a chance to make that visible. A coffee for a colleague, a message to someone who’s been quiet, taking a moment to say thank you; these small acts add up to something extraordinary. We want every business in our sector to be part of this.”

Anna Skeats, CEO, Rainy Day Trust

The Ask is Small. The Impact is Anything But.

Teams of four sign up, attend a short onboarding webinar in July, and then spend September doing what good people do anyway, just a little more intentionally. One act per day, logged in seconds on the Habits for Health app. At work or at home, in person or online. No rigid rules: if it’s intentional, a little beyond the ordinary, and it made someone smile, it counts.

Each team of four can generate up to 120 smiles across the month. With 80 teams, that’s up to £8,000 in fundraising, enough to fund around 200 hours of mental health support for people in our sector who are in crisis. That’s a real number. That’s real lives.

Teams compete throughout, with bronze, silver, and gold badges to share on social media as the smiles build, and beautiful prize hampers awarded at the end of the campaign to the highest-scoring and highest-fundraising teams.

Why Now, Why Us

The home improvement and home enhancement sector faces some of the highest rates of mental health challenges of any industry in the UK,  and at the most serious end, suicide rates that should concern all of us. The Rainy Day Trust is here at every step: prevention, early intervention, and crisis support.

Thousand Smiles September isn’t just a wellbeing programme. It’s a statement from our whole industry that we see each other, we value each other, and we’re building a culture where no one has to struggle alone.

For businesses, the benefits are clear: it demonstrates commitment to employee mental wellbeing, supports ESG and social value goals, and builds real genuine morale, all with minimal time and no additional cost for Rainy Day Trust corporate partners. Organisations not yet partnered with the Trust are very welcome to take part, with simple registration options available,  Thousand Smiles September is for our whole sector.

Ready to Join Us?

Registration opens 1 July 2026.

Teams must be registered by 1 August 2026.

If you want your organisation to be part of Thousand Smiles September and we hope you do, please get in touch with Anna directly.

Contact: Anna Skeats, CEO, Rainy Day Trust: anna@rainydaytrust.org.uk  www.rainydaytrust.org.uk

For Photos please access this link: Rainy Day Trust Thousand Smiles Campaign photos