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
3 weeks 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.
  • Promoted
  • Events
2 days ago

Healing Love Healing Money: Trust As The Foundation For A New Culture

Money, love and power are among the hardest things any community works with, and many of us carry the same fears into both: not having enough, losing what we have, and the sense that if someone else gets money or love, we won’t. Healing Love, Healing Money: Trust as the Foundation for a New Culture is taught by two intentional communities. Karen McAllister and Duncan Cryle are from Clear Sky Meditation and Retreat Center, a Buddhist-lineage community in the BC Rockies. Monika Alleweldt and Benjamin von Mendelssohn from Tamera Healing Biotope, a community of about 160 people in southern Portugal that has spent decades studying love, trust and relationship. Clear Sky has spent years working on its relationship with money, and our two communities found surprising parallels in the fears beneath both. Over four sessions we explore the roots of fear around money and belonging, love, possession and power, trust as infrastructure (community as a container for healing), and ethical livelihood. We use short meditations, body-based practices, reflection and small-group conversation. You do not need to be in a romantic relationship or live in community. When: October 27, Nov 3, 10, 17. All four sessions: 12–2pm Vancouver, 1–3pm Alberta, 7–9pm UK and Portugal, 8–10pm Central Europe. Note: US and some Canadian provinces change clocks on November 1, so the US west coast is 12–2pm on October 27, then 11am–1pm for the remaining sessions, and Eastern is 3–5pm on October 27, then 2–4pm for the rest. Cost: sliding scale Details and registration: https://www.clearskycenter.org/event/healing-love-healing-money-online/  
October 27, 2026 13:00 – November 17, 2026 15:00
  • Promoted
Need
  • Promoted
Offer
  • Communities with Openings
4 months ago

Do you feel called to help co-create a small, newly forming eco-spiritual community?

Old structures are crumbling. New ways of living are calling. We are answering that call. Wild Grace is an eco-spiritual community located in the Sierra foothills 30 minutes from Grass Valley, California. We recently completed new homes for those who feel called to our vision. Currently there are four of us living on this sacred 80 acres of land although we are a hub for an expanded neighborhood community. Many join us weekly for potlucks, expressive dance, Qi Gong, monthly musical gatherings, and seasonal celebrations in our temple, as well as tending to our orchard. We are excited to welcome others to join us on the land who are dedicating their lives to spiritual growth and ready to live in a more focused and intimate heart-centered lifestyle. Might that be you or someone you know? The fundamentals are simple. Spirit. We listen personally and collectively together most mornings, usually starting with a musical offering, a prayer, or a short reading, followed by about 40 minutes of what we call “sacred silence.” Heart Circles. About once a week we gather to share and listen. We are informed by authentic and compassionate communication practices. Nature. The land itself—an 80-acre oasis of field and forest perched above the wild and scenic South Yuba River—calls for our stewardship in the gardens, orchard, greenhouses, and general care. In turn, nature feeds us abundantly, both literally and spiritually. Interbeing. We join with others to share inspiration and connection as we host monthly gatherings of song, story and prayer that draws from the larger community in addition to other events we share with our closer neighbors. As we attend to these fundamentals, Grace flows to and through us—often in “Wild” or unexpected ways. Grace catalyzes through us, but is not something we possess. Because we all are connected, we feel that Grace actively transforms n
Need
  • Communities with Openings
3 weeks 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
  • Professional Services
3 weeks ago

Rebalancing your pet's well being (also looking for intentional community of animal lovers)

🌿 Can animals look after their own well-being? Science says yes! Zoopharmacognosy is the fascinating behavior in which animals self-medicate by selecting, inhaling, or topically applying plants, soils, and insects with natural well-being properties. Applied zoopharmacognosy brings these principles into practical use, providing animals with sensory choices for general well-being and environmental enrichment. 🧠 Driven by Consciousness & Evolution The Cambridge Declaration on Consciousness (2012): Signed by global neuroscientists, this milestone established that non-human animals possess the neurological framework for consciousness, intentional behaviors, and emotional states. Describing an animal experiencing fear, joy, or grief is a biologically accurate observation, not a human projection. Prominent advocates like Jane Goodall and animal lovers have always known this from personal experience! Innate Sensory Guidance: Only the animal knows the required plant and amount. This behavior is entirely guided by highly specialized senses of taste and smell, which is an evolutionary survival mechanism of animals. 👀 Incredible Behaviors Observed in Nature: 🐦 Birds (Starlings): Male starlings incorporate yarrow, wild carrot, and agrimony into their nests to ward off pests; chicks in nests lacking these plants suffer from significantly higher mite burdens (Clark & Mason 1988). 🦜 Birds (Parrots): Amazon parrots intentionally consume clay to neutralize toxic alkaloids ingested from wild plants (Gilardi 1999). 🐛 Insects: Parasitized caterpillars ingest specific plants rich in pyrrolizidine alkaloids to support their health (Singer & Bernays 2010; Smilanich et al. 2011). 🐒 Primates: Chimpanzees suffering from intestinal bugs intentionally select and consume bitter, anti-parasitic plants (Huffman & Seifu 1989). 🐑 Livestock: Lambs actively select plants high in tannins when dealing with internal challenges (Villalba & Provenza 2005). 🐘 Elephants: Excavate salt deposits to neutralize dietary toxins (Redmond 1992), and select botanical oils to support their natural defense mechanisms (Ingraham 2007). 🤝 How I Practice The IMIM approach honors the animal as an intelligent being capable of directing its own well-being by honoring its instinct and non-verbal language. I provide safe educational consultations to help you connect with your animal on a deeper level. (Contact me at ge*********@*****il.com to learn how to offer this sensory enrichment for the well-being of your animal!) ℹ️ Further Learning: Learn more about IMIM methodology, case studies and research at carolineingraham.com. ⚠️ Veterinary Disclaimer: Applied zoopharmacognosy is an educational and supportive tool for well-being. It does not offer veterinary advice, diagnose, or prescribe, and should never replace professional veterinary care.
  • Events
1 month ago

Coastal Regeneration Immersion: Permaculture Design Certification in Jalisco, Mexico

Tropical Dry Forest Permaculture Design & Regenerative Stewardship Certification (PDC)12-Day Intensive | 120 Hours | Costalegre, Jalisco, Mexico Join us for an immersive Permaculture Design Certificate course set in the tropical dry forest bioregion of coastal Jalisco. This 120-hour intensive blends internationally recognized PDC curriculum with hands-on regenerative practice — combining ecological design, agroforestry, natural building, and community stewardship into one integrated learning experience. Lead Faculty Jorge Luis Gtz. Olarte (Arborescencia RedGenerativa) – Regenerative Design, Soil Biology & Agroforestry Ozzy Lusth (Survior & Xochiraíz) – Wilderness Resilience & Survival Skills Dave Collins (Capacha Coastal Conservation Center) – Bioarchitecture & Ecological Development What You’ll LearnThe course moves through six progressive phases: Permaculture & Ecological Literacy – ethics, principles, and reading the tropical dry forest landscape Water & Soil Systems – keyline design, water harvesting, living soils, and compost systems Horticulture – food garden design, propagation, and biological pest control Regenerative Food Systems – tropical agroforestry, food forest design, and guild planting Ecological Infrastructure – bamboo bioarchitecture, bioclimatic farm design, compost toilets, greywater, and rocket stoves Integrated Design Studio – team-based final design projects covering watershed strategy, agroforestry, food forest layout, infrastructure, and phased implementation Daily RhythmMornings begin with optional surf/yoga and journaling, followed by field practicums and hands-on workshops. Afternoons include design studio and construction lab work, with reflection circles, communal dinners, and evening talks, films, or campfire discussions rounding out the day. Final ProjectParticipants work in teams to produce a full regenerative design package — landscape analysis, water plan, agroforestry design, food forest plan, ecological infrastructure, and bioclimatic farm plan — presented to a faculty review panel on the final day, followed by a closing ceremony, certificate delivery, and community feast. CertificationGraduates receive the Tropical Dry Forest Permaculture Design & Regenerative Stewardship Certification (120 contact hours), hosted by Capacha Coastal Conservation Center and Tierralegre, A.C. Curriculum integrates international PDC standards with tropical ecology, agroforestry, ecological restoration, bamboo bioarchitecture, bioclimatic design, GIS/photogrammetry, and regenerative leadership. Highlights Hands-on bamboo construction (temazcal, bathhouses, sculpture) Tropical dry forest silviculture practicum Community mapping and design project for Ekoa Green Community Talent show and sea turtle release
November 13, 2026 09:00 – November 25, 2026 16:00

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