Newsletter October 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.
Life at Twin Cities Family Cooperative settles into a different rhythm with the children back at school. We’re spending more time focusing on getting stuff done around the building, planning upcoming events, and many other things that got put off during our very busy, very fun summer.
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.
Blending Cohousing and Cooperative for Affordability (hybrid event) - Wednesday, October 14 6:00-7:30pm
(see below for details)
October Potluck (Halloween Themed) - Sunday, October 18 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, come in costume if you like! Use this link to RSVP.
Virtual Info Session and Tour - Sunday, November 8 2:00-3:30pm
Curious about life in our community? Join us for this online event. See below for more details. Use this link to RSVP.
November Potluck - Sunday, November 15 5:00-7:00pm
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.
Join Our Next Phase!
As our current building is close to reaching its full capacity, we are thinking ahead to the next phase. In our next phase, we plan to bring in up to 6 additional households, possibly more if there are individuals that are interested in having roommates. For this to happen, we need to simultaneously work on both expanding our membership, and expanding our building. These go hand in hand because we want the future members to be contributing their input and efforts into the next phase and also helping us meet the financial needs of growing.
Expanding our Membership
Becoming a Member of Twin Cities Family Cooperative takes time. It’s a really important decision for both the potential Member as well as the community. The first phase of becoming a Member is the application. The application involves many steps that are designed to help us learn more about each other and see where we are in alignment with our vision and ways of living together. This phase generally takes somewhere between 2-12 months, depending on an applicant's timeline.
The next phase is the Explorer Phase. Once potential Members’ applications are complete and approved, the individuals or households become Explorers. Explorers participate in all areas of community life from our daily meals together and weekly meetings, to being on teams and putting in significant time and energy. This phase typically lasts 6-12 months but can last longer. Ideally, Explorers live with us and we begin to experience life together on a daily basis. With our current space filling up, we are looking for people to become Explorers and participate in our community as much as possible, even before moving in with us. These folks will help shape what our expansion looks like and be ready to move into our new space as soon as it is ready.
Expanding our Building
Expanding our physical space could happen in a couple different ways. Even before purchasing this property, we knew we planned to expand. We interviewed several architects and builders, and selected the ones that best meet our needs: Adam Bradley Jonas, Awaken Architecture and A Squared Builders. Adam has experience living in an intentional community, so is versed in some of those needs, and designs to passive building standards. A Squared has diverse building experiences (e.g., building a strawbale house) and considers sustainable building with less waste. Both of these individuals were able to connect with our vision. We have a preliminary drawing from the architect on what a second building built on our property could look like. This expansion would give us garage parking as well as 2 floors of living space that we can design in whatever way best meets the needs of our growing community.
We have also entertained the idea of purchasing a neighboring property. This may be a quicker path to more living space but would not be directly connected to our current building.
We are at the stage of exploring these options and seeking additional capital in order to get a loan.
If you’d like to learn more about membership for either the immediate future or coming years, come to our November 8th Virtual Info Session & Tour or one of our other upcoming events or reach out to us through our Interest Form.
Online Info Session and Tour
Curious about life in our community? Join us for this online event, packed with information. We'll take you on a virtual tour of our current community property, a 7-unit apartment building, and share our future plans to double the size of our building. We'll talk 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. We'll also have plenty of time for questions. link to RSVP.
Blending Cohousing and Cooperative for Affordability
FREE: Wednesday, Oct. 14, 6:00-7:30 PM (virtual and in person)
View on your own or with others at the Hamline Midway Library, 1558 W Minnehaha Ave, St. Paul.
Housing advocate David Ackos recently saw and studied something in Germany that was striking: lovely intentional communities average people can afford. Ackos thinks this co-op-based model has the potential to help transform how human needs are met in the US. They also see ways to apply the model to housing and cohousing, which remain stubbornly expensive.
“I look forward to sharing some of my research from Berlin and Leipzig on ways people manage combined cohousing and co-op projects and how those ideas fit together well,” said David. “I’ll share pictures of Spreefeld and Ourhouse, as well as the SoWo (Solidarity Housing) cooperative.”
David’s research was completed while working on a Master’s degree in Urban Management at Technische Universitat Berlin. Their thesis was titled “Transforming Housing Systems Via Shared Ownership: Advancing decommodified cooperative housing in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota”. As a researcher, organizer, writer and teacher, David is keen on helping change systems to make people’s lives better.
David is currently working on two tenant-to-shared ownership conversions, and founding a multi-generational, mixed-income, and mixed-ethnicity cooperative with friends and loved ones in the Twin Cities. They will share some about these projects.
This event is sponsored by CohousingMN, a charitable nonprofit organization, and is made possible with donations from our supporters.
Cooperative Culture
We hope you’ve enjoyed Nancie’s monthly reflections on 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.” You can purchase the book at ic.org’s online bookstore.
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.
