Culture Club South Bay will expand to Hermosa Beach in 2026

by Laura Garber 

When Allison Hales first moved to the South Bay nearly a decade ago, she often looked out her window, which overlooked Bruce’s Beach Park in Manhattan Beach. Something was missing: people who looked like her. Hales, who is Black, came from London by way of New York City. She had fallen in love with her new hometown, but its lack of diversity shocked her. So she decided to do something about it. 

In 2020, Hales founded Culture Club South Bay (CCSB,) a non-profit organization whose initial aim is to increase inclusion for beach activities in Manhattan Beach. The program quickly drew support from other area residents, and especially local kids, who helped host kids from nearby areas that are a world apart in terms of the advantages enjoyed by local residents such as surfing or beach volleyball.

After five years of success in Manhattan Beach, CCSB is expanding to Hermosa Beach. The club will offer its youth camps near the Pride lifeguard tower next Spring. 

Programs for children eight to 13 include surf, beach volleyball, arts & education and culinary experiences at no cost to families.

Hales is partnering with Falyn Fonoimoana, an Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP) standout and Hermosa Beach native, to expand the program’s impact to Hermosa Beach.

Fonoimoana currently volunteers with CCSB beach volleyball programs in Manhattan Beach. 

“The community is going to be involved and teach the kids why our lifestyle and why our bubble is so special,” Fonoimoana said.

Fonoimoana will serve as the Hermosa Beach chairperson.

In the past five years, CCSB has provided over 600 youths with access to beach activities that they might not have otherwise experienced.

“Being able to expose people that look like me, people that never would have the opportunity, that’s cool, it’s so different,” Fonoimoana said.

Fonoimoana notes the “magical” transformation of the children who started out apprehensive of the beach elements but soon found joy in spotting dolphins, catching waves or seeing their friends during a game of volleyball.

“You see how that accumulation burst their whole bubble. It’s going to change their life, they’ll always want to go back to the beach because they have those key moments of what dug into their heart.”

Nikki Ace, a mother and resident of Inglewood was searching for a volleyball camp for her daughter, Dani, when she came across CCSD online.

“I thought it was an awesome opportunity for [Dani] to get some exposure, like surfing,” Ace said. “That’s a bucket list situation.”

As a mother, Ace was thrilled to see her daughter make friends and gain confidence as she was taught by volunteer volleyball and surf instructors.

“Getting out there on the water and just having the confidence to get up and fall down consistently,” Ace said. “[Dani] fell a million times but kept getting back up. That endurance really challenged her. She loved it.”

Ace was pleasantly surprised to find that these programs were free and included transportation at centralized locations including a stop on Crenshaw Boulevard near her home. But what was most meaningful for Ace was to have her daughter exposed to the history of Bruce’s Beach taught to the children by historian, Dr. Allison Rose Jefferson.

“The whole historical context of being at Bruce’s Beach is very personal to me,” Ace said. “Knowing that one time this was owned by Charles and Willa Bruce, a Black couple, it really hit my heart. I shed tears multiple times thinking about what we had the opportunity of having.”

Today, Ace’s daughter is experiencing recreational beach activities that Nikki Ace didn’t know she could have.

“Just to see my child having that opportunity that honestly, I didn’t have, didn’t know I could have,” she said. “It’s just such an inclusive environment.”

At CCSB’s second annual fundraiser at a private residence in Manhattan Beach, Dani Ace spoke to the crowd recounting her favorite memories of camp. 

“Either surfing or riding the bus,” Dani said. 

In fact, many of the kids who attended the camp relayed their joy in surfing.

“I swear they like volleyball too,” Hales said laughing. 

Hales introduced 11 year-old Angelo Cassiano, who participated in the camps twice. Once at seven and again at 11 years-old.

“There’s only supposed to be 100 participants,” Hales said to the crowd. “But this year I went on to bring in 125 because I wanted to get some kids to come back.”

In 2026, Hales hopes to give over 400 kids the opportunity to participate in camps across the South Bay. 

Hales drew inspiration for CCSB from Willa and Charles Bruce’s vision for the Black community in beach towns. The Bruce’s acquired property along The Strand in 1912 to create a beach resort for the Black community. By 1916 it was a thriving, diverse beachside community complete with a dance hall, bathhouse and café.

“The purpose of that lodge was for Black congregation, for them to have a place to go and swim, lounge and enjoy themselves,” Hales said. “Clearly that wasn’t there now because I was literally there looking at it for weeks on end, and being like, that ain’t that.”

In 1924, politicians used eminent domain to confiscate the Bruce’s land. The land sat dormant for decades, indicating the grab was racially motivated.

The City officially returned the land to the Bruce’s descendants in June 2022. In 2023, the family sold it back to LA County for $20 million.

Hales moved to her 26th street beach cottage in 2018, transitioning from a career in the music industry to pursue Los Angeles real estate. But the pandemic’s isolation in 2020 and the racial reckonings following the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbrey pushed her, like much of the community, into a hunkered-down headspin.

The political turbulence compelled Manhattan Beach to reevaluate the legacy and historical injustice that hovered over Bruce’s Beach.

As one of the few Black residents in Manhattan Beach, Hales served on the City’s Task Force for Bruce’s Beach, helping to write and verify the history of the iconic landmark. But Hales was hoping for more.

“It was an eight month traumatic experience for me, in the sense that we just never got anywhere,” Hales said.

Hales had been working with other Black community members around the South Bay, joining an outdoor group called Black Girl Caucus. It was there she met Fonoimoana.

“A lot of the conversations at Black Girl Caucus was how our community was reacting to these instances and how it made us feel,” said Fonoimoana. “That was something that was important for us, to have a safe haven, a group where we can just sit down and say, ‘what’s going on?’ It was therapy.”

Fonoimoana was one of the few students of color at Hermosa Valley Middle School.

“There wasn’t a role model or someone that looked like me. There wasn’t someone in the community that I was like, ‘oh, that would be great to do.’ So there was an identity crisis,” she said.

Both Hales and Fonoimoana grew up in multicultural families and noticed the absence of diversity in the South Bay. When Hales first floated the idea of CCSB to bring more diverse events and youth programs, she says she didn’t get support from Manhattan Beach’s City Council initially.

“I think it’s the bubble mentality. I’ve been listening to it my whole life,” Fonoimoana said. “Because what do we say? We love our bubble, we don’t want to leave it, we don’t want it to change. And [Hales] just came in with daggers and all of the other weapons and they’re like, ‘oh my God, who is this lady?'”

With local support and donations, CCSB persisted and is now working with the City of Manhattan Beach and expanding to cities like Hermosa and Redondo Beach. Hales describes CCSB as a collective, working with other like-minded organizations such as South Bay Boardriders Club and The Jimmy Miller Foundation.

CCSB brings in local professionals for their surf and beach volleyball camps including Olympic beach volleyball player and current UCLA beach volleyball head coach, Jenny Johnson Jordan alongside the UCLA beach volleyball team.

Working alongside Johnson Jordan, Fonoimoana feels it has become a full-circle moment.

“I used to shag balls at the AVP for Jenny Johnson Jordan and her partner,” Fonoimoana said. “And that was the first representation for me of African-American women playing volleyball.”

“I can’t express the amount of gratitude that we get from the parents,” Hales said. “I’m proud that we have a reputation of parents believing in our work and for being a place for kids to be able to come and feel safe.”

By Spring 2026, Hales is hopeful with enough funding that the team can offer more camps like the ones at Bruce’s Beach.

“In order for any of this to happen, it’s going to depend on funding,” Hales said. “85% of our funding comes from local donations. Right now, most of that donor fund comes from Manhattan Beach.” 

Hales notes that the importance of these camps is for both the community outside the beach cities but also for everyone inside the community.  

“To bring in kids of color, all ethnicities, to come and play volleyball, eat food and bring back the idea of what this place is,” Hales said, referring to Willa and Charles Bruce’s vision for a diverse beachside community. 

To find out more information on CCSB or make a donation visit cultureclubsb.com ER