Newsletter May 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.
Happy Birthday to us! Twin Cities Family Cooperative has been living together for 1 Year! We are grateful for all the folks who have journeyed with us and supported us along the way.
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.
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 - May 15-17
Fri May 15 4PM-8PM
Sat May 16 8AM-8PM
Sun May 17 8AM-2PM
June Potluck - Saturday, June 13 5:00-7:00pm
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.
June Online Drop-In - Wednesday, June 24 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.
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.
Party Time!
Join us for cake and ice cream to celebrate our 1 year anniversary of living in community! Many people have been involved in our community over the years that it has taken us to get here and we want to express our gratitude to them. We hope to see faces from the past as well as brand new faces! Use this link to RSVP so we know how much cake to make!
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. Please use the links above to RSVP. We look forward to seeing you!
1st Annual Meeting
This is a picture of Day 1 of our 2-day Annual Meeting. We enjoyed some fun activities and spending time together, while taking a good look at the previous year and a look ahead to the coming year. See a summary of our Annual Meeting in this Special Edition Newsletter.
2nd Annual Free Sale
We’ve been talking with neighbors and are excited that there will be stops throughout the neighborhood. Some other neighbors are planning a garage sale for May 15th so we’re adding them to the map of stops.
We’re still looking for more volunteers to help before, during, and after the sale. We are also accepting some donated items at the sale. If you’d like to get involved, please fill out this form to let us know. (see our April Newsletter for more)
Cooperative Culture: “Beneficial Creativity”
This month Nancie reflects on “Beneficial Creativity,” 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.”
Ludwig and Gimnig suggest that both mainstream culture and counter culture dismiss the value of creativity for everyone: mainstream culture encouraging only the most talented to be creative, often having a focus on the arts and on “product for sale,” while counter culture may see creativity as self-indulgent or something to be done alone. In both cases, creativity or the created product is judged.
Recently the grandkids worked on building “tree houses.” Henry climbed the spruce tree and nailed a piece of plywood across some branches as a table for them to set things on. Lorelei chose the maple tree, using evergreen branches (from the dried out Christmas tree) overhead to make a shelter from the rain and developing a pulley system to bring things up. They spent 3 days doing this work, were thoroughly engaged and had such fun! It was so lovely to sit back and watch them enjoying themselves, working together, and asking questions of adults when they didn’t know something. This is one example of beneficial creativity. As adults, we have often lost this spontaneous, joyful creativity.
“Welcoming intuition is closely related to reclaiming creativity. Be cautious of holding too tightly to cognitive data and squashing the more inspired and body-centered urges that arise in our groups. Listen for ‘gut feelings’ of both caution and excitement.” (Cooperative Culture Handbook, p.146)
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.
