After having 15 seasons on the air, Supernatural has one of the most loyal and active fan bases. They won EW’s Fanuary by helping multiple charity campaigns to succeed. The Supernatural family is a close-knit community, that the stars of the series care deeply about, including: Misha Collins, Jensen Ackles, and Jared Padalecki. A simple phrase is one of the most important things that has brought the fandom together: "Always Keep Fighting." If you utter these three words to a die-hard Supernatural fan, they will recognize it. Most fans have emotional ties to it and a personal story close to them. This phrase opened up about conversations about mental illness, anxiety and depression and has helped break down mental health stigmas in the community.
In an Entertainment Weekly interview, Collins talked about their launch of a support network. After years of hearing fans' stories, he has partnered with his co-stars to launch the SPN Family Crisis Support Network, a community support system to help fans cope with mental health issues such as depression, self injury and addiction.
He said, “We have this interesting exposure to our fandom in the form of conventions, where we go and we meet fans face-to-face pretty much every other weekend. And we have occasion to meet thousands and thousands of Supernatural fans and at every event, every one of us encounters as many as a dozen people who share really heart-rending stories about self-harm or addiction or depression or suicide attempts. We see a lot of people with tattoos of semicolons on themselves — the semicolon is where the author could’ve chosen to end a sentence but instead chose to carry it on so it’s a very potent symbol for somebody who’s struggled with near-death situations and forged on."
Collins also founded a nonprofit organization, Random Acts that promotes acts of kindness worldwide. It has donated thousands of dollars towards the education of children in Nicaragua and Haiti. They also offer funding to a multitude of fan-proposed projects.
In 2015, Padalecki launched a T-shirt campaign through Represent to benefit nonprofit organization, To Write Love On Her Arms. The organization supports people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury and suicide. Padalecki spoke to Variety about how the campaign came about. He has been passionate about people struggling with mental illness, depression, addiction or suicidal thoughts. He opened up about having breakdown in the middle of filming an episode for Season 3. A doctor came to set and diagnosed him with clinical depression and told him to take a break from work.
He also admitted that he had lost a friend from suicide after losing his battle with depression. He said, "I say constantly that there’s no shame in dealing with these things. There’s no shame in having to fight every day, but fighting every day, and presumably, if you’re still alive to hear these words or read this interview, then you are winning your war. You’re here. You might not win every battle. There are going to be some really tough days. There might be several tough times in any given single day, but hopefully, this will help somebody to think, “This isn’t easy; it is a fight, but I’m going to keep fighting". Even if there are a thousand small fights, even if every other minute you’re thinking about suicide, or depression, or addiction, or if you have mental illness, I want people to hit it head on and take action. And to be proud that they’re winning their fight, period."
In 2014, Samantha Williams lived in a minivan after escaping an abusive relationship with her father. She discovered Supernatural which changed her life. She said, "I binge-watched Supernatural every night. It kept me calm and I wasn’t scared to stay by myself in my minivan.” In September 2014, she moved to Alabama with her aunt, but she eventually got bullied by her boss at a new job, and people around her weren't sympathetic towards her, causing her to become suicidal.
One evening, she returned home from work and was greeted by a T-shirt that she forgot she had ordered from a suicide awareness campaign run by Padalecki. The shirt said "Always Keep Fighting". She said, "I started crying and knew it was a symbol. That was someone or something telling me to stay alive.” She eventually drove to one of their conventions to thank Padalecki herself for changing her life. She said, "Jared gave me the biggest hug and told me, ‘Always keep fighting because you are worth it.' He said, ‘You are worth everything. Every little breath you take, you are worth it. If you promise me that you will always keep fighting, we will always be there for you.’”
Padalecki spoke of moments like this one saying, "I am consistently awed by our fans and by the community that is aware of these shirts and supporting it and being vocal about it and I’ve read some amazing posts on Twitter and Facebook about people who are saying, “I’ve been depressed for so long. I’m embarrassed to talk about it, but it’s going to help me talk about it,” and I think that’s such a big step. It takes that. Bearing your struggles alone, I don’t think we’ll get very far."