A year ago Jani Hanson, 17, and Rayna Duenas, 16, were heading down a path of self-destruction as drug-using high school dropouts with extensive runaway records. But a new court program has bailed them out, and given them a chance to help others.

The program, Girls Court, and the girls in it are being recognized by the sponsors of Make A Difference Day for community service they did last October at the Salvation Army Women's Way residential alcohol and drug abuse treatment center.

Girls Court received its award Friday from Michael Fisch, president and publisher of The Honolulu Advertiser, which carries the USA Weekend, a sponsor of Make A Difference Day. The program just completed its first year.

The community service showed them that if they continued on their path they could end up losing a lot.

"I came really close to that situation," Hanson said at the short ceremony in the office of Judge Karen Radius, who presides over the program. Hearing the women's stories about having their children taken away and their drug addiction was an incentive to improve, she said.

Hanson's own life started to turn sour when she entered intermediate school, where she blossomed physically after spending her youth as a tomboy, she said. Girls didn't like her and soon began spreading rumors about her reputation, Hanson said. She began to turn her back on school and by ninth grade she'd met a 21-year-old man who would buy her drugs.

She stole from family members and created a rift with her parents that lasted two years.

"I pretty much hated everyone at the time," she said. "I hated school. I hated my family."

Truancy, runaway arrests and her drug problem finally landed her at Girls Court.

Hanson's mother, Laurene, said she's proud of her daughter's progress and is grateful for the program that also offers family counseling and parenting classes.

"We didn't know who to turn to," Laurene Hanson said.

Laurene Hanson said she went from a full-time to a part-time job to provide transportation to all the activities her daughter was required to attend, including drug treatment and therapy.

About 1,100 girls a year go through the juvenile court system. Many were showing up as adults in Family Court as victims in temporary restaining order requests, or as negligent mothers in child protective services cases, or seeking child support in paternity suits, said Judge Radius.

In 2003 some 41 percent of the children arrested were girls, but they were treated in a system designed for boys, the judge said.

The Family Court judges began to recognize a need for a girls program, Radius said.

It's noteasy, but a strong desire to end drug addiction and hazards of a runaway's life kept Duenas in the program.

Duenas' younger years were productive. She loved school and was in the gifted and talented classes, she said.

But she was sexually abused by her mother's boyfriend, and when she entered King Intermediate School she learned about cigarettes, beer and drugs, Duenas said. Cutting school and cruising with friends won out over studying.

She was dropped from the above-average classes but made it to high school where she was given another chance at enrichment classes.

"I only went for the first couple of weeks of school," she said. "It was so easy to cut school. I wanted to cruise with my friends, smoke weed, drink beer with the guys and go to the beach."

A chronic runaway, she fought a lot with her mother and refused to go home, so she was placed in a group home, Duenas said.

She asked to go home again and several months later discovered she was pregnant, which made her decide to change her life.

"I had to do something with my life," she said. "I couldn't be a young teenage mother running away with her child."

In Girls Court they have a group session that covers an array of topics, including sexuality, abuse or anger management, and are required to perform community service coordinated by the judge, probation officers, parents and social workers.

Hanson and Duenas will stay with the program acting as peer leaders, sharing their stories, successes and failures.

Hanson is holding down a job, will soon graduate from high school and wants to attend college to become an art teacher.

Duenas has passed her GED and received her high school diploma and is looking for a job.

Reach Eloise Aguiar at eaguiar@honoluluadvertiser.com.