Research and Quality Improvement
Advancing community-based research on homelessness, health disparities, healthcare access, public health, and evidence-informed outreach.
Sarah “Jeany” Valliant
Sarah “Jeany” Valliant founded Valliant Foundation and leads its research program focused on homelessness, health disparities, and community-based public health.
Community-Based Research on Health and Homelessness
Our work focuses on practical questions that can improve understanding, program planning, and service delivery for people experiencing homelessness.
Health Disparities
Examining health conditions and inequities affecting people experiencing homelessness.
Healthcare Access
Studying barriers to primary care, chronic-disease management, referrals, and continuity of care.
Outreach & Implementation
Evaluating practical, ethical, and replicable approaches to community-based health outreach.
Population Health
Conducting systematic reviews, field-based studies, and program evaluation related to homelessness and public health.
Connecting Field Experience With Research
Valliant Foundation’s research program is informed by direct community engagement, structured outreach, and questions that arise in real-world public-health settings.
Studying What Happens in Real-World Outreach
Community-based research begins with understanding what is actually happening in the field. During outreach, trained volunteers may conduct permitted, non-diagnostic health screenings such as blood-pressure measurement while following structured procedures for consent, documentation, education, referral, and escalation when appropriate.
Experiences like these help generate practical implementation questions: Which approaches are feasible outside a traditional clinical environment? Where do barriers arise? How can programs protect autonomy while gathering useful information? And how can findings be translated into safer, more practical outreach models?
Human-Participant Protections
Valliant Foundation maintains institutional human-research registrations and an active SAM.gov entity registration supporting participation in eligible federal research funding opportunities.
Ethical Review and Research Oversight
The Valliant Foundation IRB provides ethical review and oversight for applicable research involving human participants. Review may address informed consent, privacy, confidentiality, risk, participant selection, and other protections appropriate to the proposed research.
Valliant Foundation is registered with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office for Human Research Protections and maintains a Federalwide Assurance. These registrations support institutional research oversight and do not constitute approval of any individual study or indicate that every Foundation project is federally funded.
Peer-Reviewed Research
Valliant Foundation research contributes to the evidence base on ethical, accessible, and replicable approaches to health screening during homeless outreach.
Cardiovascular Screening in Homeless Outreach: An Operationally-Ethical Protocol
This study describes an ethical and replicable framework for incorporating cardiovascular screening into community-based homeless outreach, including volunteer training, decisional-capacity assessment, informed consent, vital-sign collection, and predetermined emergency escalation procedures.
Read the Published StudyManuscripts in Peer Review
Current projects examine health disparities, violence, chronic disease, and barriers to healthcare among people experiencing homelessness.
Meta-Analyses of Sexual Assault Prevalence Among Homeless Women
This project synthesizes evidence on sexual assault among women experiencing homelessness and examines variation in reported prevalence across vulnerable subgroups.
Cardiovascular Risk Factors Identified Among Homeless Adults in San Francisco: Recommendations for Evidence-Based Outreach Services From a Quality Improvement Initiative
This work examines cardiovascular and chronic-health risk factors observed during community outreach and considers how findings can inform referrals, health education, emergency response, and nonprofit program planning.
A Systematic Review of Type 1 Diabetes Among Persons Experiencing Homelessness
This systematic review examines barriers to insulin, glucose monitoring, food access, medication storage, and continuity of medical care among people experiencing homelessness with Type 1 Diabetes.
Pain on the Street: Implementation of a Field-Based Pain Response for People Experiencing Homelessness
This implementation-focused project examines a field-based approach to pain response for people experiencing homelessness, with attention to feasibility, structured outreach procedures, and community-based implementation.
Conference Presentations
Valliant Foundation research has been presented at academic and research conferences across California.
University of California, Los Angeles
University of California, Davis School of Medicine
Sonoma State University
San Francisco State University
Work With the Valliant Foundation Research Team
Students, researchers, clinicians, academic collaborators, and community organizations interested in research on homelessness and public health are welcome to contact the Foundation regarding research participation, collaboration, and scholarly opportunities.