A "March for Our Lives" will be held next Friday beginning at 5 p.m.
The march will begin at UTC’s Hunter Hall on McCallie Avenue and proceed to Miller Park where there will be music and local, fresh food served by Food Not Bombs, followed by speakers from across the nation.
The march will then proceed to City Hall, where the Poor People’s Manifesto for Economic Human Rights will be posted to the doors.
The march will then conclude with a Tent-Inn, its location to be announced at a later date.
At sunrise on Saturday, Oct. 5, an ecumenical prayer service will conclude the march.
Officials said, "Every day in our community, working families are forced to choose between paying the electric bill or buying groceries, between paying the landlord or filling prescriptions.
"Every night in our community approximately 300 people are sleeping in cars, abandoned buildings, under bridges or in the woods.
"Every day, hundreds of children begin the school-day hungry or cold from sleeping in their cars, or on the couch, or in a church basement.
"Twenty five percent of homeless people are employed. Forty percent of homeless men are veterans.
"We have program shelters that are filled to capacity, not one of them city-run or funded.
"On Oct. 3, we invite you to take a stand as poor people march on Chattanooga.
"Why is this march being held?
"Believing that all humans are equal and that all humans have the right to shelter, health care, water, food and all other economic, social and political rights, the Poor People’s March was created in response to the growing inequalities and economic injustices occurring in our city and across our nation.
"All people are invited to the march and the park and to spend the night at the Tent-Inn, especially poor People, homeless people, working people, students, teachers, old people, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, children, city and county leaders, doctors, lawyers, rabbis, farmers, Republicans, Democrats, Independents, religious people, agnostics, atheists, writers, readers, cowboys, policemen, priests, preachers, sinners, saints, social workers, activists, students, anyone with a heart who cares about the poor. Animals are welcome, as well.
"The goal of the march is to move from service to solidarity, and to make basic economic human rights a reality for all in Chattanooga. The March is being organized by the North Georgia and Chattanooga chapter of the Poor People’s Human Rights Campaign."