Pegasus Legal Services for Children
A Legal Lifeline for New Mexico’s Most Vulnerable Children
Pegasus Legal Services for Children, based in Albuquerque and serving clients statewide, is New Mexico’s only bilingual nonprofit law firm dedicated to children’s rights and family law. Our work ensures that a child’s ability to access healthcare, education, and a safe, affirming home is never limited by their family’s ability to afford an attorney.
Kinship Guardianship, our largest program, serves children and caregivers in every county across the state. Under New Mexico law, parents are presumed to be the people best able to care for their children. However, the reality is that some parents become temporarily or permanently unable to meet their children’s emotional and physical needs. Mental health challenges, substance use, domestic violence, physical disability, acute illness, and family separation due to deportation or incarceration can all prevent parents from providing safe and stable care.
Kinship Guardianship is a legal relationship that allows adults who have a strong, existing bond with a child — often grandparents or other relatives — to step in when a child is in need. This legal protection ensures children remain safe when their parents are unable or unwilling to care for them. In many of our cases, this means a grandparent opening their home to provide stability and love for a grandchild or grandchildren. Because only a court can grant guardianship to a non-parent, families need legal support to navigate this process — support Pegasus is proud to provide.
Children placed in kinship guardianship consistently experience better health and developmental outcomes than those placed in traditional foster care. Remaining within their extended family offers stability, familiarity, and emotional security that are critical to a child’s well-being.
Take the story of three-year-old Mica and his grandparents, Tim and Barb. Mica’s paternal grandparents reached out to Pegasus after discovering he had been severely neglected. Pegasus’s legal team took their case, and several months later, a judge awarded Tim and Barb guardianship. Safe in the care of Grandma and Grandpa, Mica began meeting developmental milestones and is now happy and healthy.
About a year later, Tim and Barb contacted their Pegasus attorney again — this time in a panic. Their son had recently had another child, and the baby, just seven and a half weeks old, was severely malnourished, weighing only five pounds after losing significant weight since birth. Pegasus acted quickly, helping the grandparents troubleshoot immediate solutions to bring the infant safely into their care.
Mica’s story is far from unique. Approximately 36,000 children in New Mexico live with grandparents or other caregivers with no parents present in the home. According to a LANL Foundation report, between 2021 and 2023, New Mexico had the highest rate of children in kinship care in the nation — more than double the national average.
Pegasus Legal Services for Children is the only nonprofit law firm in New Mexico fully representing children’s civil legal needs.
We consider ourselves a lifeline of last resort for children in dangerous situations. As New Mexico families face overlapping medical and social challenges — including high rates of substance use, extreme poverty and hunger, and community violence — Kinship Guardianship plays a critical role in keeping children safe and connected to caregivers deeply invested in their well-being.
Pegasus Legal Services for Children is proud to provide expert Kinship Guardianship legal services at no cost to our clients, and we are deeply grateful to the Santa Fe Baby Fund at Santa Fe Community Foundation for supporting this vital work.
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The Santa Fe Community Foundation invited its nonprofit partners to submit stories related to our January topic of Early Childhood & Families.
Santa Fe Indigenous Center
The Santa Fe Indigenous Center is a Native-led nonprofit serving Indigenous families across Santa Fe County. Through biweekly food drives, cultural events, community programs, emergency financial assistance, and a robust network of referral resources, SFIC supports the diverse needs of the local Indigenous community. Each year, the organization hosts its signature event — the Honoring Native Nations Powwow on Indigenous Peoples’ Day — bringing dancers, drummers, Tribal Dignitaries, artists, and community members together to celebrate Indigenous culture, joy, and resilience. This year’s powwow was a vibrant success, and SFIC looks forward to continuing this tradition in 2026.
Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian
Last year, the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian opened Carved Stories by Hopi artist Mavasta Honyouti. Featuring all sixteen low-relief carvings from the Coming Home series — created in tandem with Honyouti’s children’s book Coming Home: A Hopi Resistance Story — the exhibit recounts his grandfather Clyde Honyouti’s experience at an off-reservation federal boarding school. This Indigenous-led project offers a powerful and visually compelling reflection on Hopi life, culture, and history. As Brian Vallo notes, “Carved Stories… is both powerful and beautiful.”
Kha'p'o Community School
With support from the Native American Advised Fund, sixth-grade students at Kha’p’o Community School embarked on Our Voice, Our Stories — a year-long documentary project blending traditional Tewa arts and modern digital storytelling. Through pottery, weaving, sewing, and film, students explored their cultural identity and celebrated their voices as young Tewa people.
