The mission of New Jerusalem Laura is recovery in all its dimensions, ranging from personal to societal. The immediate focus is recovery from mind-altering chemicals. The long-range focus is recovery from all obstacles to the fullness of human life. NJL's members are committed to pursuing all dimensions of human development that enter into achieving stability in recovery: spiritual, psychological, social and economic. NJL is essentially a nondenominational spiritual community of mutual help engaged in a continuum of human development open to all who need it and wish to be a part of it’s mission.

Our treatment plan is a continuum of holistic care advancing from a highly structured program with intense supervision during the first two months, through intensive therapy and gradually increasing responsibility and freedom, first within the community and then in employment, to a less structured and supervised, but nevertheless accountable program in Advanced Recovery. Transition to a fully responsible, independent life is the goal of Advanced Recovery.

“The mission of New Jerusalem Laura is one of holistic recovery: we seek to integrate the physical, psychological, spiritual, political, and social dimensions of recovery in our daily lives. We are committed to work toward healing and justice for and with the impoverished people of North Philadelphia, with whom we live and work in community and reciprocity. We are not so much a service institution, as a community of people helping ourselves and our neighborhood to recover.”

“Recovery is about the radical change from death to life, from darkness to light, from self-will to God's will. It involves the mystery of conversion and the aspiration to fullness of life in God. It requires risk and mutual support and the sharing of practical spirituality and wisdom. God must be the sole principle of this new way of life, this reordering of chaos."

-Sister Margaret McKenna, founding member and current director