Lady GaGa has launched a foundation for youth empowerment.

The 'You and I' hitmaker is partnering up with groups including the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation and the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University to create the Born This Way Foundation to help young people develop self-confidence and well-being.

The eccentric star claimed she was setting up the not-for-profit group to help people worldwide develop a new standard of care towards one another.

In a statement, Lady Gaga said: "Together we hope to establish a standard of bravery and kindness, as well as a community worldwide that protects and nurtures others in the face of bullying and abandonment."

Her mother, Cynthia Germanotta, is leading and directing the foundation, which will launch in 2012.

Lady Gaga has long campaigned for charity and ethical issues, previously speaking to gay rights campaigners about the repealing of the don't ask, don't tell policy in the US - which didn't allow openly homosexual officers to serve in the armed forces - before its repealing earlier this year.