Launch of the Underdog Crew's new mini-bus

By DB Morgan

It’s early Sunday afternoon. The Colchester half marathon has just been run and The Underdog Crew are standing on Tesco’s forecourt in Highwoods, in the rain! 

They hope a few may turn up to celebrate the ‘big reveal’ alongside them. Next the guys from Team Kinetix arrive. A few shoppers side glance the big covered ‘thing’ with the Funkeefish logo emblazoned across it, check their watches and decide to hang around for a bit – intrigue piqued as crash mats and trampolines begin to be laid across the forecourt. A few more arrive, then a slow stream of people begin to shelter from the rain under the storefront canopy. Suddenly there’s a healthy crowd.

Welcome to the age of identity crises, academic pressure, and emotional whirlwinds. The teenage years are akin to a suspenseful teen drama series, where every episode unveils new challenges and cliff-hangers. But what happens when the reality of our society starts to reflect these scripted TV shows? That’s where we find ourselves, in a world muddled by consumerism, societal pressures, and concerning mental health statistics.

The Underdog Crew are clearly aware of these issues and have spent the past few years working with some of the most at-risk and marginalised young adults from Colchester city. Utilising the power of professional filmmaking and creative pursuits to infuse positivity, emotional wellbeing and empowerment, The crew are currently zipping around Colchester filming bold new TV series, ‘The Slip’ – a forward thinking teen drama centred around mental health and coming of age in a complicated and uncertain modern world.

Sunday – 2pm. Team Kinetix, a fantastic parkour team and youth empowerment project begin their first electric performance to the crowd. Members as young as eight years old leap like salmon over seriously high obstacles to enthusiastic applause from the crowd.

Spearheaded by Brad Wendes – who has appeared on Britain’s Got Talent and competed in ‘Ninja Warrior UK’ – are world renowned freerunning and parkour athletes; performing around the world for huge brands since 2005.

Team Kinetic whipped up the crowd during a lively 10-minute performance, before handing over to Underdog Crew founder, Dom Morgan, who took to the microphone to discuss the awesome young adults the crew represents.

“Since formalising the Underdog Crew as a not-for-profit community interest organisation the traction has been nothing short of amazing. From BBC Look East coming down to film us, to packing out the Colchester Arts Centre for our annual celebration and awards evening it’s been a whirlwind of excitement. The amazing young adults we have been privelged to work with are a daily reminder that there is a huge section of societal youth who are forgotten, misunderstood and cast aside. From unsung hero young carers, to kids who are being let down by the education system – mostly because they present as ‘too autistic for mainstream school and not autistic enough for specialist support organisations’ – we are meeting and working with some of the most awesome young adults from our city. I am not an activist by any means, but things really need to change as there is a rapidly growing lost generation that are falling through the cracks and destined for problematic adulthoods… or worse.”

Tackling teen mental health is vital to the here and now! And the situation is serious.

In 2017, one in eight 5 to 19-year-olds in the UK had at least one mental disorder, and the rates increased with age. Anxiety and depression were the most common, particularly among 17 to 19-year-olds. Girls aged 17 to 19 and boys aged 14 to 16 were the most likely to have an eating disorder. Add in the after effects of the pandemic and these figures are exploding.

A Closer Look: Teen Mental Health in Essex

Essex isn’t just the setting for ‘The Only Way is Essex’. It’s home to many teens grappling with these same mental health issues. 1 in 8 young people in Essex is experiencing a mental health issue, and the number of young people reaching out for mental health support in Essex has risen by over 25% in recent years.

The UK Health Minister, Matt Hancock, emphasised the government’s commitment to improving mental health support in 2020: “We’re investing more in mental health than ever before because we know how important it is. Our goal is a service where people get the right treatment at the right time, as part of our Long Term Plan to build an NHS fit for the future. With record investment and the biggest mental health expansion in Europe, we are turning the tide on mental health – but we need to go further and faster.”

An innovative not-for profit-organisation, ‘The Underdog Crew’, based in Colchester, seems to have unlocked the mystical secret of engaging young adults in a modern world full of distractions and societal falsities. Having worked extensively with many marginalised and at-risk local teenagers over the past ten years the concept is simple… allow teenagers to embrace themselves for who they are regardless of race, gender, neurological status or sexual orientation. Then give them the chance to work alongside professional film crews on a range of truly exciting and inspirational projects including feature films, documentaries and music videos.

Founder and project creative Director, DB Morgan, a multi award winning feature film Director, screenwriter and producer explains:

“We’ve been running the project for over 10 years now, predominantly self funded, and were rewarded, last year, with grant funding from to open our first permanent studio base in Colchester and continue our filmmaking adventures, whilst empowering the youths in our home town. As the archetypal underdog myself – suffering from PTSD, and with autism, severe anxiety issues and past mental health problems stemming from many years of drug abuse in early life – I understand the importance of embracing our perceived limitations and finding your place in the world. We are thrilled that we have some amazing local supporters, like Anglian Community Trust, who’s support and funding has facilitated our headline project to produce Colchester city’s very first teen drama series, ‘The Slip’, bringing well recognised TV and independent film stars into the town to inspire and act alongside a raft of local teenage talent.

With filming underway, and due to begin filming episode three very soon, the project tackles hard hitting, and extremely relevant, issues that form part of the complicated, and often confusing, daily lives of teenagers navigating their journey towards adulthood in modern Britain.”

DB continues, dropping a few exclusive behind-the-scenes project details:

“To celebrate this, we wanted to create a unique project to thank the town for its amazing support and continue to expand on our creative ventures with local youths.
We are extremely privileged to be able to film this project in my home town. To be able to shine a creative light on Britain’s newest city and highlight some amazing locations like the Hythe Docks, our iconic town centre and many other fantastic visual locations is a dream come true. The fact that we also have some prolific acting talent getting behind the project is nothing short of amazing. Their allyship will ensure maximum exposure as we aim to create a meaningful and marketable television project exclusively in our town.”

Excitedly opening up on his involvement as star of the project, legendary ex ‘Hollyoaks’ and ‘Celebrity Love Island’ star, Paul Danan elaborates on his involvement and role:

“To be able to bring my own life experiences into this project and add my support to such prominent societal issues is a great prospect and opportunity. I play a character called Danny Rye. Coming through the care system and then into an unrelenting world of choices without guidance my character’s path led towards crime, drugs and a million other poor choices, resulting in his kid brother following path and ultimately dying from a drug overdose. As a catalyst for change Danny’s life slowly turns around and he eventually finds his true calling as youth mentor at the ‘Boudicca Centre’… also known as “The Slip”. I love the concept and this character offers great scope for empathy and raising awareness to some major life issues. I come into the project from episode two and can’t wait to come to Colchester and get stuck in.”

With a virtually flawless list of success stories from many young adults, and even more from parents who are often at their wits end, involvement in DB Morgan’s Underdog Crew is providing life changing experiences for many of the young adults who need it most.

Rewind to 2pm on Sunday 17th March… another celebration of the first year of Underdog Crew Studios success and the latest grant from the National Lottery ‘awards-for-all’. The grand unveiling of the crew’s new minibus. DB Morgan hands the microphone to a range of project supporters and ambassadors, the Trustees from ACT, actors Charlene Aldridge and Mike Rushforth and a couple of Underdog Crew members and parents. Five minutes of deep emotional testimonial follows to a silent crowd as a wide range of people explain the transformational power of the crew’s mission to ‘fix and empower’ some of the most at-risk young adults of Colchester.

Charlene Aldridge explains:

“I just wish something like this had been here for me at that age. My daughter is neuro diverse and loves coming along and getting involved whenever we can too. What Dom, Laura and the team are doing is absolutely life changing… life saving! There is a critical need, an overwhelming need, and the Underdog Crew seems to have found the way to make real difference in these children’s lives, where many other have, and continue to, fail. The fact that local doctor’s surgeries are now reaching out to them as another referral for critical interventions says it all.”

The silence of the crowd, together with a small queue of parents registering interest for their own children says it all.

And then… the yellow ribbon is cut and a sparkling vinyl wrapped minibus is revealed to raucous applause. And as Team Kinetix perform a few more tricks to the eager crowd, who don’t seem in a hurry to leave, DB Morgan and the team contemplate their next rosdtrip adventure as their empowerment resources continue to expand.

They talk about the magic of the movies and it seems that the Underdog Crew has found an inspiring way to rub a little of that magic off with his innovative youth media projects.

DB Morgan’s Underdog Crew adventures can be supported and followed at www.underdogcrew.org and subscribing to ‘UnderdogCrewTV’ on Youtube.