We formed the Dedham Greenspace Coalition to address an urgent need to preserve open space in the town of Dedham and make it publicly accessible across neighborhoods and demographics. Dedham is a densely settled community bordering the city of Boston and Route 128. Housing and commercial development pressures  threaten the town’s remaining greenspace and economic planning. Our goal is to collaborate with and amplify the work of existing town and civic groups as the central advocacy platform to protect open space and natural areas. We want to generate a robust dialogue that puts open space and sustainability at the heart of planning and economic development efforts in Dedham. We also want to address the inequities of open space in Dedham. Put simply, the west side of town is more prosperous than the east side with a lot more open space. Residents there historically band together to prevent development that threatens their natural areas.  Residents on the east side live in more crowded conditions, some in poverty, with much less greenspace. But there are opportunities (Manor Woods, Mother Brook) as well as completed town proposals like the Wigwam Pond Public Access and Recreation Plan that the Coalition intends to move forward through collaboration and pressure.We are re-inventing the wheel.  We want to collaborate and harness what’s already being done by disparate groups and channel it through a single advocacy organization.