Twin Oaks Community

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  • Communities

About the Communities

  • Established
  • English
  • Ecological
  • 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. Founded in 1967, our lifestyle reflects our values of egalitarianism, feminism and sustainability. We welcome scheduled visitors throughout the year. We are economically self-sufficient. Members work in our community businesses–making hammocks and chairs, indexing books, and making tofu. 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, office work, and more. Our work schedules of 42 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 tolerance of diversity and sustainable living. We share our vehicles, we build our own buildings, and we share houses of 10-20 people. We do not have a group religion; our beliefs are diverse. We do not have a central leader; we govern ourselves by a form of democracy with responsibility shared among various managers and teams.
Some of us work actively for peace and justice, ecology, and feminism. Each summer we host a Women’s Gathering, a Queer Gathering and a Communities Conference; see our website for details. We offer a three-hour tour on many Saturday afternoons; please call during business hours or email to reserve a place. We welcome people to visit just for our Visitor Program, either for just the three weeks, or as a prerequisite to membership. Information about visiting is available on our website or by mail.

  • Purpose
  • Ecological
  • Languages
  • English
  • Community type
  • Coliving
  • Ecovillage
  • Intentional Neighborhoods

Commemorative dates

  • January 1, 1967
  • Started living together
  • Open to new members
  • Open to visitors
Total
95

How to join

The first step to becoming a member is to participate in one of our Three-Week Visitor Periods. Information about how to apply can be found on our website twinoaks.org
During the visitor period, people participate in the work and social life of the community and attend “Oreos” (orientations about different aspects of life here). People who are interested in moving here will go through our membership process during those three weeks.

Guest Book

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Location

  • United States

Twin Oaks Community

Promoted Needs and Offers

Need
  • Events
9 years ago

Autumn PDC 2017 Greece, Tinos Island

Autumn 2017 Permaculture Design Course 23 September – 5 October (12 days, 80 hours certificate) Led by Andrew Jordan and Elena Symeonidou We are excited to announce the second FULL PERMACULTURE DESIGN COURSE (PDC) that will be hosted in Tinos Eco-lodge with two knowledgeable teachers Andrew Jordan from Ireland and Elena Symeonidou from Greece. The Permaculture Design Certificate The Permaculture Design Certificate is an 80 hour theoretical course based on Bill Mollison’s Designers Manual, teaching how we can use today’s tools and technology to create a more sustainable world. Permaculture is not only about growing vegetables and animals, it is a whole sustainable lifestyle. Permaculture ethics are Earth Care, People Care and Return of Surplus and this is taught by showing students to focus on local resources and their local community, and to have well thought out design practices to create abundance sustainably. Andrew and Elena aim at inspiring students with their own very real examples of transforming their lives with permaculture in a contemporary context. Having worked in a broad spectrum of climate and social conditions, they will share with their students the thrills but also the challenges they faced. Oftentimes permaculture is being presented as a panacea for world problems and the road to resilience and abundance is depicted as straightforward and easy. Andrew and Elena will challenge this notion and try to prepare their students in a realistic manner for their own fascinating journey towards change. Nikos will share his hands-on experience of building the ecolodge and designing the energy, water, plant and waste systems. We will have the rare opportunity to discuss and elaborate on Nikos’ and Marilia’s choices on different aspects of their project, reflect on the challenges, opportunities and limitations. Anyone who wants to bring a big change in his life and gain a thorough understanding of how we can use our natural e

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Communities

A residential project: people live here as their primary home.

Organizations

An institution, business, network, or project that isn’t a residence (e.g. a learning center, farm, or network with no one living there full-time).

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