They had the healing power of support.

Family, friends, social workers, judges — even Gov. Linda Lingle and Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann — gathered to celebrate their milestone.

"This is a hard job they've done and their hard work is not over," said Marcy Brown, who until yesterday was the coordinator for the program. She's moving to Maui to help the courts there establish a network of four drug courts.

The program in O'ahu's Family Court serves parents whose struggle with drug abuse left them at risk of permanently losing their children to child protective services. Since it began in 2002, 30 parents have graduated and 20 have dropped out.

On average, participants are reunited with their children after 197 days, which is nearly 100 days sooner than those not enrolled in the program.

Parents are closely monitored by the court and social workers. The services they receive include addiction treatment, parenting classes, counseling, domestic violence and anger management treatment, and help with housing and job training.

That help can be a powerful force for change.

When it was her turn yesterday to say a few words, a kukui nut lei around her neck and a batch of certificates under her arm, Cindy Glaze of Wai'anae could scarcely believe how far she had come.

"This time last year, I had lost everything," said the 37-year-old Glaze. "I was in jail and I had lost my children. To be honest, I didn't want my children back. The drugs were more important to me."

Three of her four children sat in the audience and listened to her jaw-dropping testimonial, one of them the daughter Glaze assaulted with a dinner plate last year, cutting the girl's head.

Glaze had been a functioning "ice" addict for 20 years, she said. But not 10 minutes after she told a social worker last April that drugs were more important than her children, police arrested her for dealing, Glaze said. She calls that "a God hit." Glaze called a friend at Ho'omau Ke Ola, a residential and outpatient treatment program. She was desperate for change.

"I didn't know how to get out of the hole I had dug so deep," she said.

The residential treatment and the Family Drug Court program turned her life around. Today she is a full-time nursing assistant.

"The drugs aren't first today," she said. "My family is first. My children are first. I am first today."

Like the other graduates, Clayton Kane began his speech by telling the audience how long he had been clean and sober and that he was a proud graduate of drug treatment. Each statement drew a loud response, like "amens" from a Baptist congregation.

His daughter was 2 days old when social workers swept her away from a hospital crib.

"When I first came to Family Drug Court, I was all broken down, all in tears," said Kane, 24, of Waimanalo. "From that day, I made up my mind to make my life right and get my daughter back."

And he did. But it wasn't easy. It still isn't easy.

"Everyone gets cravings," he said. "And it's hard to fend them off. I still get them today."

Despite its success, the drug program faces an uncertain future, said Brown, the outgoing coordinator.

The program was financed with a $1.2 million federal grant that runs out in September. The state judiciary has asked the Legislature for $353,979 to keep it going for two more years. The funding would cover salaries and free up $250,000 from the Department of Health that could be used for treatment programs for clients, Brown said.