1992. The SAGE Project, Inc was founded by Norma Hotaling, when she extended an experienced and compassionate hand to prostitutes who were on the streets or in jail. She connected with other survivors of sexual exploitation, and began building community alliances to foster her mission of raising awareness about and ending Commercial Sexual Exploitation of adults and children (CSE/CSEC).

1995. The SAGE Project, Inc. was incorporated in November of 1995, and in March of that year, in a collaborative effort between law enforcement and the San Francisco District Attorney's office, the “Johns’ School” was launched with its first 13 participants. In October of 1995, we established our first program for girls in Juvenile Hall.

As is the case with all startup organizations, the challenges we faced were daunting. We saw first-hand how the traditional structure of law enforcement and city government contained inherent biases towards "criminalizing the victim" in cases of sexual exploitation. We saw that even within the community of advocates, there were varying and sometimes conflicting opinions of what constituted right action, with some groups minimizing or denying harm within all areas of the sex industries, including child sexual exploitation.

1996. The people of SAGE instituted our first peer education and support program for women transitioning from jail into the community. Throughout that year, we worked tirelessly to plan and develop new programs, seeking out sources of funding and resources, and becoming a visible presence in both local and global politics and advocacy.

1997. We created the Early Intervention Prostitution Program (EIPP) as a sister program to the First Offender Prostitution Program (FOPP). With support from the San Francisco Department of Public Health, we launched the Satellite Sexual Trauma Counseling Program. In partnership with the Centers for Disease Control, Women and Children Family Services, and Manalive, we helped implement Sisters Working in Communities, a training and capacity-building program in four San Francisco neighborhoods. By the end of 1997, we had hired and trained six new prostitution survivors as SAGE staff.

1998. By 1998, we had successfully assisted more than 800 women and girls in exiting the sex industries and transitioning into increased health and safety. In the summer, we opened the STAR Center, and in October we became the only San Francisco nonprofit to win the Innovations in Government Award from the Ford Foundation, Harvard’s JFK School of Government, and the Council for Excellence in Government.

1999. In August, we moved to our permanent home at 1275 Mission Street. The move allowed SAGE to expand, develop new programs, and create a sense of stability for both staff and clients. At the end of 1999, we opened our on-site health clinic and low-cost Hepatitis C clinic. With the San Francisco Department of Public Health, we sponsored a comprehensive training conference on Hepatitis C.

In 2000, we moved from our startup phase and took on more long-range planning to ensure the sustainability of The SAGE Project, Inc. We received funding to help renovate our building for increased accessibility to people with disabilities, and began planning for an on-going Capital Campaign, to pay the mortgage on our building and plan for an eventual second site. We also were the recipients- in October, 2000- of the Peter F. Drucker Award for Non Profit Innovation. And perhaps one of the important moments in 2000 was our first formal graduation ceremony, when nine women graduated from the STAR Center and celebrated increased health, well-being, and legal, wage-earning employment.

2001. In April, Norma Hotaling, SAGE's founder and executive director, received the Oprah Winfrey “Use Your Life” Award, and was featured on the Oprah show. Our 2nd annual Graduation Ceremony, held in June, included 23 graduates and participation from our staff, community partners, and supporters.

2002. We formalized our Men’s and Transgender Programs, as well as our STOP program. By the end of 2002, The SAGE Project, Inc. employed more than 30 staff people, including peer counselors and educators, and several clinicians in a range of areas of specialization.

2003. We received a $1.2 million congressional allocation with the support of Senator Diane Feinstein. The congressional earmark provides for expansion of The SAGE Project, Inc., including organizational and leadership development, and helps to fund our efforts to assist organizations throughout the U.S. and the world to replicate the successes of the SAGE Project.

2004. SAGE projects included hosting a STOP Conference, “Practical Training Sessions: Providing Services to Victims of Trafficking in Persons”, in conjunction with the Protection Project of the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies and initiating major renovations of our building in San Francisco, and we expanded our office space to support a separate administrate office site. In cooperation with the City of San Francisco, we also began fundraising and planning to open the Secure House for Girls, San Francisco’s first residential shelter for sexually exploited youth. And we launched an expanded and redesigned web site, along with other formal communication efforts, to share information and raise awareness about SAGE and CSE/CSEC issues with a broader audience.

Since the early 1990s, Norma Hotaling and representatives of The SAGE Project, Inc. have presented, spoken and provided testimony at literally hundreds of national and international conferences, hearings, and through local, national and international media venues. There are now 18 components of the SAGE Project. We have hosted dozens of domestic and international site visits from organizations and advocates concerned with issues of exploitation, addiction, and trauma or seeking to replicate our program.

Throughout our organizational history, certain practices and beliefs have been consistent: we retain our survivor-centered perspective and focus, we build our programs and services via strong community partnerships, and we emphasize both individual healing and systemic change.