Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan will visit NIU today to talk about her campaign to educate students about violence.

The press conference for the campaign will take place at 1:30 p.m. at the NIU Center for the Study of Family Violence and Sexual Assault, located off Route 38, directly west of the NIU Convocation Center.

Melissa Merz, a spokeswoman for the Attorney General’s office, said the NIU visit is part of a larger campaign.

“We are partnering with Verizon Wireless on a campaign to make people aware of violence among students,” Merz said.

The campaign is targeted at young women to help them identify if they are in an abusive relationship, Merz said. Posters have been developed to help educate and will be hung at several Illinois college campuses in addition to NIU.

“They’re pretty graphic posters,” Merz said.

Campaign advocates said that types of abuse vary and may change over time.

“Abuse can be verbal, but can quickly turn into physical or sexual abuse,” Merz said.

The program started earlier this year and has already started at the University of Illinois-Springfield and Loyola University.

Verizon Wireless is underwriting the campaign, which is estimated to cost $20,000, said Carolyn Schamberger, spokeswoman for Verizon.

The company already focuses on funding groups that help prevent domestic violence, Schamberger said. These groups often help older women who are in established relationships, however, she said they wanted to do something geared more toward a younger audience.

She said this campaign will help women at an age when they are starting to enter their first significant relationships.

More than 40 percent of college-age women will be in an abusive relationship of some form, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Violence awareness

Who: Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan and Verizon Wireless representatives

What: 1:30 p.m. today

Where: Assembly Hall of the NIU Center for the Study of Violence and Sexual Assault, located off Route 38, directly west of the NIU Convocation Center