Group of children playing with water in a community setting at Twin Oaks.

Twin Oaks Intentional Community

  • Communities

About the Communities

  • Established
  • Social
  • Rural

Founding year

  • 1967

What we do

Twin Oaks is an income-sharing community of 100 people living on 485 acres of farm and forestland in Virginia. We were founded in 1967, and our lifestyle reflects our values of egalitarianism, ecology, and nonviolence. We welcome scheduled visitors throughout the year. We are economically self-sufficient.
Members work full-time in our community businesses–growing, packing, and shipping organic heirloom seeds, indexing books, making tofu and other work. These businesses provide about one-third of our work; the rest goes into the tasks needed to support a rural village of 100 people–organic gardening, milking cows, equipment and building maintenance, cooking, office work, and more. Our work schedules of 40 hours each week are very flexible. In return for member’s labor, the community provides all basic needs, including housing, food, clothing, etc. Twin Oaks has an intricate community culture.
Our everyday lives include many recreational activities–social and support groups, performances, music, games, dance, and art. Our culture values inclusivity and sustainable living. We share our vehicles, we build our own buildings, and we share houses of 10-20 people. Some of us do sustainability activism and work for economic, racial and gender justice. Each summer we host a Communities Conference, Women’s Gathering and Queer Gathering ; see our website for details.
We offer a two-hour tour on many Saturday afternoons; please email or call during business hours to reserve a place. Our Three-Week Visitor Program is a prerequisite for membership and must be arranged well in advance of the proposed stay. Information about visiting is available on our website.

Our Mission

egalitarianism, income-sharing

  • Purpose
  • Social
  • Community type
  • Ecovillage
  • Commune
  • Activities
  • Farming
  • Experiences

Commemorative dates

  • January 1, 1967
  • Started planning
  • January 1, 1967
  • Started living together

Video

  • 100 Total members
  • Open to new members
  • Open to visitors
Total
115

Basic expectations or agreements for members

Read our website visiting section and then correspond with us to arrange a Saturday tour and/or a three-week visit. Arrangements must be made well ahead of any visit.

Primary decision-making authority

  • Small Leadership Group

A few people (not elected by the broader community) make the major decisions.

Decision-making process

  • Leadership Decides

A single person, couple, or small group makes most major decisions.

Governance structure

  • Founder/Leader-led

Primary authority rests with the community’s founder(s) or designated leader(s).

Economic model

  • Complete Income-Sharing

All member income goes into common pool for community use.

Economic scenarios for this community

  • There is a labor obligation

Additional economic information

Labor: Yes (42 hrs/week)
Members with pre-existing debt: allowed
Weekly work quota, 40 hours.

Shared resources and amenities that are accessible to everyone in the community

Common House, Garden(s), Greenhouse(s), Vehicle Share, Library, Workshop, Outbuilding(s), Swimming pond or pool, Large Scale Kitchen, Tractor & Farm Equipment, Fire pit, Swingsets & play areas, Internet

Frequency of communal meals

  • Approximately all meals

Significant food acquisition practices

  • Locally sourced

Dietary restriction

  • People can cook and eat what they want in their own residence

Community activities and engagement

  • Volunteer, Internship, or Apprenticeship, or WWOOF’ing
  • WWOOF'ing, Guest Farming
  • Festivals, Conferences, Events

Substance use culture

  • Substance use appears in public spaces but no pressure

Gender composition

  • Roughly balanced (no group over 60%)

Age demographics

  • Family-focused (many children and parents)

Property status

  • Privately owned

Property owner

  • By a Land Trust, Home Owners Association, or corporation

Setting

  • Rural

Countryside locations with significant distance from urban centers.

Community type

  • Ecovillage

    Integrated communities designed around ecological principles with sustainable living practices.

  • Commune

    Communal living with shared resources, property, and often income or work responsibilities

Self-produced energy

  • 33 - 66%

Energy sources used

  • Photovoltaic Solar

Self-produced food

  • 33 - 66%

Food systems

  • Community garden
  • Greenhouse / aquaponics
  • Land area size
    485 acres

Guest Book

Written reviews are available for plus members. Click here to upgrade.

Location

  • Virginia, United States

Twin Oaks Intentional Community

Needs and Offers

Connecting people and communities through an intentional online marketplace

  • Promoted
Offer
  • Real Estate For Sale
5 days ago

Beautiful 3+ Bed, 2.5 Bath Townhome in Established West Emerald CoHousing, Seattle

A rare home is available at West Emerald Cohousing, an established all-ages intentional community in West Seattle. For those considering a move to the Pacific Northwest—or hoping to join a mature community rather than one still in the forming stages—West Emerald offers decades of community life, beautiful gardens, shared resources and a peaceful setting within the city in a convenient location since 1999. This unit has a unique floor plan that is ideal for co-buying, co-living, or for one household. The home itself offers a flexible 3+ bedroom, 2.5 bath layout: Garden-level room with a separate exterior entrance and half bath—ideal for a home office, studio, guest space or client-facing business Main-level bedroom and full bath, laundry, making one-level living possible Open great room with large windows overlooking gardens filled with birdsong Well-designed kitchen with generous storage and pantry Two additional light-filled spacious bedrooms and a full bath upstairs Thoughtfully maintained and updated Located at the end of a common pathway for added privacy and garden views, Just feet from parking, which is out of view West Emerald community amenities include: Common House with gathering and activity spaces Community meals and events Mature gardens and shared outdoor spaces Workshop/maker spaces and bike barn Exercise room EV charging opportunity Excellent Metro access to Downtown Seattle just minutes away Nestled into a dell, it’s Seattle’s best-kept secret South Seattle College and lifelong learning, NW Wine Academy, the Seattle Chinese Garden are nearby, with easy access to Alki Beach, Lincoln Park, magnet schools, ferries, and the shops and restaurants of the West Seattle Junction. 6000 17th Ave SW, Seattle, WA Is a wonderful opportunity to have your own comfortable, private home while becoming part of a vibrant and well-established Seattle all-ages cohousing community. For more information contact the friendly Realtor at 206-579-9066, or at ki**********@**********te.com who will be happy to meet you there or do a facetime tour.
Offer
  • Communities with Openings
2 days ago

Unit C-2, Woodard Lane Cohousing — Olympia, WA

We are looking for renters and buyers who truly want to participate fully in a community living situation; to collaborate, share meals, attend meetings, share stewardship of our grounds and buildings, socialize, and share spaces including the Common House, guest rooms, tools, Center Green, vegetable garden, and more. Unit C2 is available for rent or for sale. Unit C2 Unit C2 has functioned as two units since its beginning. The lower level is currently occupied. It’s ideal if you desire ground floor ease of entry — as owner, you can live comfortably in half and rent out half. C2 For Rent (ground level) — $1,900/month Short term rental agreement with 90-day notice; includes utilities. Contact Kate Greene: yo******@***il.com or 360-789-7587 925 square feet One bedroom One bathroom Bonus room/office with loft bed Open kitchen, dining room, living room Deck view of forest Front yard garden C2 For Sale (entire unit) — $630,000 Contact Kate Greene: yo******@***il.com or 360-789-7587 1,904 square feet total (each level is 952 SF with a full kitchen and private entrance) 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and a laundry room Ground floor entry with no steps Two back decks that face a wooded ravine The upstairs living space is an open kitchen, dining room, and living room The lower level has a full kitchen, two bedrooms, and a separate entry Upstairs has a large bedroom with closets, and a bonus room with a full-sized loft bed Monthly dues are currently $799.00, including all utilities (electricity, gas, water, sewer, garbage) plus a healthy contribution to the reserves fund See flyer for more details
Need
  • Forming Communities
4 weeks ago

Looking for: people building relational capacity, with a view to community

What’s here now: An intention, a framework developed over five years, and a programme running in central Victoria to find people to build with. No land, no group, no timeline. The question this is organised around: What makes a community of people living together sustainable over decades – where people enjoy being there, conflict is low, and the conflict that does arise gets handled in ways people value. The distinctive premise is capacity before formation. Most communities form first and build relational skill afterwards, usually under pressure. This one proposes doing it the other way round: people build the capacities first, and the group forms from people who have them. That includes a working idea about collective capacity – that a group has a ratio, and below some threshold it can’t metabolise its own conflict and starts consuming itself. Roughly: in a group of twenty, perhaps three or four with high capacity, most in the middle, and very few without. Untested, and something this project exists to find out. Governance: Sociocracy, with the intention of testing it meaningfully at scale rather than adopting it nominally. What’s actually happening: A three-week residency at a property near Castlemaine, and a practice group running before it. The medium-term aim is twenty to forty people at a rented facility. The long-term aim is a support hub sharing the framework more widely. What I’m looking for: People who want to build this capacity seriously, and who might eventually want to build something together. Not necessarily people who want to live here – the current property probably isn’t the long-term site. Happy to hear from anyone this resonates with, including people already in community who’d rather share what they’ve learned than join anything.
Need
  • Communities with Openings
3 days ago

Looking for a family-friendly farm, cohousing, or intentional community

This might be a little hard to explain, but I’m going to try. I’m 28, Colombian-American, and I have a seven-year-old daughter. Our life is a little unconventional. I travel, my work is not a normal 9–5, and I’ve realized I don’t want to keep building our life around temporary housing, hired help, and having to recreate a support system everywhere we go. I keep wondering whether there is somewhere we could actually belong. Not necessarily an “intentional community” in the formal sense. It could be a farm, a group of families, cohousing, an intergenerational household, or something I don’t have the language for yet. What I want is for my daughter to grow up around people she really knows. Other children. Adults who become familiar and trusted over time. A place where people notice when someone needs help, where meals or childcare or work sometimes overlap naturally, and where community is more than everyone living near each other. And for myself, I want people I can actually think and build with. I care a lot about spirituality, inner work, land, education, caregiving, and learning how to live differently. But I also care about power and about whether the communities we create reproduce the same things we say we’re trying to get away from. I need to be around people who can acknowledge things like racism, class, gender and systemic inequality without becoming defensive or treating those conversations as inherently divisive. I’ve been developing some of my own thinking around all of this through a framework I call Conscious Colombia, Participating Wisely, and Contemporary Sādhana. A lot of it comes down to a question I keep returning to: how do we become people who can participate in community wisely, while also creating structures that remain accountable and open to correction? I don’t have a fixed location in mind and I’m not looking to rush into anything. I’m really just trying to find the people and places where this kind of life is already being attempted — imperfectly, seriously, in real life. If you’re building something like this, living in something like this, or even asking similar questions, I’d love to talk.
Offer
Need
  • Forming Communities
4 weeks ago

A call for pioneers, trade-builders, and the four Elemental Elders to construct our first cooperative village prototype.

Intake Open: Flagship WE Network Village in Clubb, MO Call for pioneers, trade-builders, and 4 Elemental Elders to construct our first cooperative village prototype. WE Network is opening ground zero in Clubb, Missouri—our living model to build trade shops and train leadership teams for nationwide village rollout. We are building a self-sustaining, salvaged homestead ecosystem operating as a parallel society alongside existing systems. Bring your own living setup (tents, micro-campers, trucks, schoolies, tiny homes) to secure your lot within the co-op village. The 3×3 Exchange: Mental, Physical, & Spiritual Maintain your lot via our 3×3 exchange (3 hours/day, 3 days/week = 9 hours total): Mental: Classroom teaching, strategy, skill-sharing, and village instruction. Physical: Hands-on labor building active land and shop projects. Spiritual: Participation in our weekly Friday Fellowship Fire Circle. Trade Shops & Lot Placement Every member contributes directly to our local micro-economy: Trade Holders: Set up your specific service shop for the co-op. Transitioning Members: Assigned a trade lot to focus on constructing the physical shop structure. Weekend Operations: Retail open Saturdays and Sundays. Mid-week is reserved for building and life. Priority Intake: The Four Elemental Elders We are recruiting four foundational Elders: Earth Elder: Land, soil, livestock, permaculture, and natural materials. Air Elder: Building structures and Eco Junk waste-to-material upcycling. Fire Elder: Spiritual health, Natural Law, body healing, and Fire Circles. Water Elder: Resource flow, food storage, bookkeeping, and services. How to Apply 👉 Visit fffc.wtf to submit your intake request today.

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