Give Kids A Voice, a Tampa Bay nonprofit, has built a free online tool called the Hydro-Shield Water Map that helps families spot pools and water hazards near their homes.

The map draws on the Hillsborough County Property Appraiser's GeoHUB open mapping data, according to a Nov. 2 post on the Property Appraiser's X account. GeoHUB is the county's public geographic information system, maintained by Hillsborough County's Geospatial Services division. It includes boundary data, public safety layers such as flood and evacuation zones, and infrastructure datasets.

Apollo Beach and Ruskin sit along Tampa Bay's eastern shore, laced with canals, waterfront lots and residential pools. The nonprofit has not published details about the map's specific geographic coverage.

Give Kids A Voice is a project of the Robert Norton Foundation Corp, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in 2021 by Isabel Norton and Mark Little, according to the organization's website. Its primary mission is putting free communication devices into the hands of nonverbal children with autism. The organization says it has distributed nearly 200 devices to children, caregivers and teachers. Each device costs about $100 to source, set up and ship, and families pay nothing.

The water-hazard map represents an expansion into water safety, a cause the nonprofit has highlighted on its website. Give Kids A Voice notes that children with autism face elevated drowning risk, citing the National Autism Association's finding that drowning is the leading cause of death for children with autism.

That concern echoes across Hillsborough County. In a May 2024 report, the Children's Board of Hillsborough County said nine children in the county died from drowning in 2023, citing the Hillsborough County Medical Examiner. Rebecca Bacon, the Children's Board executive director, said she had also seen figures showing 97 child drowning deaths statewide that year.

The Hydro-Shield Water Map is free. The nonprofit has not announced a launch date or detailed how the tool displays hazard data.