Built from Love, Grounded in Purpose

In August 2017, when Taylor Gardner Chaney lost her father, the fragile timeline of ordinary life shattered into sharp relief. She was already carrying a vision she had harbored since childhood—a conviction sparked by watching her younger sister, Lindsay, navigate a world that routinely underestimated adults with Down syndrome. But her father’s passing collapsed whatever hesitation remained. Eight months later, without an exhaustive corporate playbook or certainty of what lay ahead, she opened the doors to The Garden Foundation.

"Losing my dad completely shifted my perspective on time, purpose, and what it means to live a meaningful life," Chaney reflects. "It was a reminder that life is incredibly short, and if there’s something you believe in deeply, there’s no reason to wait for the perfect moment to pursue it."

Born and raised in Las Vegas, Chaney had watched firsthand what happens when individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities age out of the school system. Too often, the horizon abruptly narrows to the four walls of a family home or crowded adult day programs staffed at impersonal ratios. She set out to build precisely what her own family had searched for: a place anchored in dignity, continuous learning, and agency.

Rethinking the Ratio

Traditional day programs for adults with disabilities frequently operate at staff-to-client ratios of 1:8 or even 1:16, where individual curiosity is easily subsumed by sheer crowd management. Chaney designed The Garden Foundation to disrupt that model entirely, instituting intentional ratios of 1:1 to 1:3.

The low headcount allows instructors to meet clients where they are, tailoring vocational practice, independent living skills, and creative exploration to each person’s interests. What began as a singular sanctuary has rapidly evolved into an indispensable community institution. Earlier this year, the foundation marked a major milestone by acquiring a nearly five-acre campus in Las Vegas, establishing permanent room for expanded programming and outdoor community engagement.

A Better Cup of Coffee

While The Garden Foundation tackles daytime education and personal growth, Chaney recognized that true independence requires economic dignity. Her answer was Dig It! Coffee Co., a social enterprise built to provide competitive-wage employment and vocational training for individuals of all abilities.

From the start, Chaney refused to treat the business as an exercise in charity. The coffee had to be exceptional, the service seamless, and the atmosphere vibrant. The goal was never to ask customers to buy a latte out of sympathy, but to demonstrate that inclusive hiring practices make for superior enterprises.

Yet running a commercial business carries unforgiving market realities. When street construction, transit hurdles, and parking issues strangled foot traffic at Dig It!’s original brick-and-mortar storefront in the Arts District, Chaney faced the most gut-wrenching call of her career: closing the location she had poured her heart and savings into.

"I think entrepreneurship requires you to fall in love with your mission, not necessarily the way you accomplish it," she says. "The mission of Dig It! was never about a building or an address. It was about creating opportunities, changing perceptions, and building something meaningful within our community. It was about our people always, and that mission hasn't changed."

Pivoting away from that first physical shop cleared the path for strategic partnerships and pop-up expansions across the valley, ensuring the enterprise remained financially healthy enough to protect the jobs it was created to provide.

The Discipline of Starting

Now a mother of two balancing leadership across a nonprofit and a growing commercial brand, Chaney views resilience less as an abstract virtue and more as daily operational practice. When aspiring founders ask how to turn a personal passion into a sustainable venture, her guidance cuts through the paralysis of perfectionism.

"Start before you're ready," she advises. "If you wait until you have all the answers, enough money, the perfect plan, or the perfect timing, you may never start at all. You don’t need to have it all figured out. You just need to be willing to start, work incredibly hard, and keep showing up."

For Chaney, the fuel to keep showing up stems directly from the families she serves—parents whose lifelong advocacy mirrors what she saw in her own home, fighting to carve out spaces of belonging for their children in an indifferent landscape.

The Horizon Beyond Novelty

With development underway across the new five-acre campus and Dig It! Coffee Co. steadily scaling its footprint, Chaney is focused on creating structural longevity. Her ambition is not simply to sustain two thriving Las Vegas organizations, but to fundamentally shift the regional conversation around labor, capability, and belonging.

Her ultimate benchmark of success is systemic: she is working toward a day when neurodivergent baristas, competitive wages for disabled adults, and deeply individualized adult education cease to be treated as novelties. Until that reality arrives across every sector of her hometown, she intends to keep building.