Newsletter April 2026
Building a community that enjoys a rich quality of life for all ages, brings a more equitable society, and a harmonious and responsible relationship with the natural world.
Twin Cities Family Cooperative is looking forward to a very busy springtime full of events, celebrating living together, our first annual meeting, and growing our community!
Upcoming Events
In an attempt to not fill your inbox with unwanted emails, we don’t send out reminders throughout the month. If you would like to receive email reminders before each event, email tcfamilycoop@gmail.com and say “sign me up for reminders.” You can specify if you only want reminders about online events and not in-person events.
April Online Drop-In - Wednesday, April 8 12:00-12:45pm
A time to drop in and ask a question or just say hi. Life can be busy but this is an easy, informal opportunity to connect. No need to register ahead of time, just put this link on your calendar and show up.
April Potluck - Sunday, April 19 4:00-7:00pm
Join us for good food and good company! We’ll provide a vegetarian main dish, drinks, and dishes. Bring your kids, bring your friends, we can’t wait to see you! Use this link to RSVP.
National Cohousing Open House Weekend
Virtual Open House - Friday, May 1 12:00-1:30pm (Use this link to register)
In-Person Open House - Saturday, May 2 12:00-3:00pm (Use this link to register)
1 Year Anniversary Party - Saturday, May 9 4:00-7:00pm
Join us for cake and ice cream to celebrate our 1 year anniversary of living in community! Use this link to RSVP so we know how much cake to make!
2026 Free Sale - (see below for more details)
Fri May 15 4PM-8PM
Sat May 16 8AM-8PM
Sun May 17 8AM-2PM
Check our website or facebook page for events in the coming months. If you can't make it to these events and you want to connect, email tcfamilycoop@gmail.com. We’d be happy to connect in person or online.
Welcome Malik!
We are thrilled to have Malik joining us as an Explorer Here is a bit about him in his own words.
I am an Educator and Artist. I've been teaching folks things professionally for 40 years or so. I love making neat stuff and thinking about making neat stuff. I love to laugh and learn. I've lived in a Co-housing community in the past and have yearned to return to my life in community. I try to be intentional about finding practical ways to build connections between people and build people through connections. I have three adult sons. I like watching documentaries and instructive information on the Internet more than I'm willing to comfortably admit. I make excuses to indulge in chocolate chip cookies and cake as often as I can justify.
We continue to welcome applications for Explorers. We have a 3-bedroom unit that will be available starting this summer and we would love to fill it with a family with children. The process generally takes at least a couple of months from the time an individual or household requests an application to when they can move in. Reach out if you would like to talk to someone about starting the application process.
2nd Annual Free Sale
Last year we hosted our first ever Free Sale and it was an enormous success! We gave away many boxes of useful goods and met a lot of new people.
I reflected in our newsletter at the time that the sale was a very meaningful experience for me. Spending some time with our neighbors on the lawn and seeing some of our unused possessions become valuable items to other people made me feel connected to the neighborhood in exactly the way that I always imagined when we were planning our community. I’m hoping that this year’s sale will bring more people into that experience and lay further groundwork for expanding our local sharing economy.
This year, we plan to invite our neighbors to participate in the Free Sale by bringing donated items to our yard to give away, hosting their own Free Sale in their yard, or volunteering to help make the event happen. We’re also happy to accept donations and volunteers from outside our neighborhood. If you’d like to get involved, please fill out this form to let us know.
National Cohousing Open House Weekend
May 1-2 is National Cohousing Open House Weekend. Come see Twin Cities Family Cooperative online or in person and learn more about life in our community! We’ll take you on a tour of our current community property, a 7-unit apartment building, and share our future plans for growth. Hear about who we are, what life is like in our urban family-focused and intergenerational community, and what to do if you are interested in joining our community. If you have questions about our community, this is a great opportunity to get answers. We’ll provide light snacks at our May 2nd Open House at 421 SE 6th Street, Minneapolis. We look forward to seeing you!
Get Your Veggies (and Cookies) Here!
We are still looking for a few more people to sign up to pick up veggies in Marcy-Holmes so that we can become a pick-up site for Community Homestead CSA. Here is the link to sign up for their CSA. Please share this information with people you know and help us get enough people signed up! If you missed what we wrote about it in February, you can see that newsletter here.
Cooperative Culture: “Emergent Stories”
This month Nancie reflects on “Emergent Stories,” one of the Cooperative Culture keys in Yana Ludwig’s and Karen Gimnig’s book “Cooperative Culture Handbook: A Social Change Manual to Dismantle Toxic Culture and Build Community.”
Stories are an important tool in community to enhance bonding in relationships. They can help to build trust and empathy, and transform conflict. Stories might include the “origin story” of the community’s beginning and early years, thus creating shared meaning. They may be stories about one’s unique experience that gives the community insight into an individual’s life, especially an individual on the margins, and who can experience being heard deeply. Stories can foster emotional connection. Topical stories (e.g., talk about a memorable holiday from your childhood) serve to enrich the group’s knowledge about who each other is, what they bring to where they are today.
Often in mainstream culture, stories can be used for marketing and control, to persuade, to sell things, or to establish one’s power in the group. It is common for a person to tell themselves stories about others they encounter, the person’s probable motives, etc. In that case, one projects onto the other something that feels true, but may be completely disconnected from the reality of the other person. None of these ways of using stories are useful in building relationships.
Counterculture may drift into having “A” story, one that assumes that everyone thinks alike, believes the same thing, etc. Some individuals may experience feeling left out if their reality is not part of the group’s accepted story about what is true. If people have to squelch themselves to fit into the group story, that creates distance and may lead to them leaving the group.
Cooperative culture encourages speaking authentically and listening deeply, without judgment or projection. This is an important tool in helping community members to bond together. We at TCFC have not had a practice of telling stories beyond telling our origin story to new people. Time may need to be set aside intentionally to allow stories to be told. On a small scale, one thing our community does is have a question during the evening meal where everyone responds with a “mini-story” of their experience. For example, “What is something you learned today?” “How were you kind to someone today?” “What is your favorite memory of spring?” In a small way, these give us insight into each other’s daily lives.
Our Vision
We are an intergenerational community of individuals, couples, and families. We are queer-affirming, gender-inclusive, and multicultural. We value the spectrums of the human experience and each individual’s diverse abilities. We support each other in raising children and throughout all stages of life.
We strive to live out of a place of abundance. We develop internal economic policies that actively push back against capitalist expectations and ways of relating.
We are committed to nonviolence and environmental sustainability. We believe in the potential for radical transformation of society and see communal living as an element of that change. We strive to make meaningful contributions to society, engaged in dismantling the systems of racism and oppression in our society.
If you would like to learn more about Twin Cities Family Cooperative, please watch a virtual tour of our community, visit our website and facebook page, attend our events (online and in-person), or fill out our Interest Form to connect. All past newsletters can be found here. If you would like to be removed from our email list, please email us and let us know.
