Student Support Services

A History of the Homebase Brand

Origins: Arrow Neighbourhood Residential Community

Homebase™ began in November 2013 as the Student Services Department of the Arrow Hotel & Student Apartment Complex on Swanston Street in Melbourne City, incorporating welfare supervision and events for student-residents as well as the resident mailroom. At the time, we were one of the few places accredited to house U18 international students who were studying at various educational institutes in Melbourne.

U18 IS Welfare Supervision: Partner Institutions (Education Providers)

U18 international student-residents under the supervision of Homebase™ Student Services attended the following institutions:

U18 IS Welfare Supervision: Affiliate Agencies (Guardianship Providers)

Our U18 student-residents had in most cases an appointed Guardian/caregiver responsible for their welfare. While some of these would be a Melbourne-based relative or family friend of the student, most students' parents would have had to hire a Guardian from a dedicated Agency.

Guardianship Agencies Homebase™ has worked with include:

Homebase Residential Welfare Services & U18 Administrative Support

Five years of service on the RA Team; resident of the Arrow Neighbourhood community for 11 years

I was personally involved with Arrow Apartments for 11 years. In February 2006, I joined Arrow as a first-year undergraduate resident at the age of 17. My involvement with the Student Services Team began in 2011 when I was made a Resident Adviser (RA), having a weekly shift on frontline duties, signing in U18 residents for the nightly Curfew Check required by their Education Providers, at the time only RMIT and William Angliss Institute. Student Attendances were recorded with reports sent to their Caregivers and Education Providers on a weekly basis.

In 2012, I left Arrow for one year to undertake a Masters course in Public Policy at Macquarie University in Sydney. I returned to Arrow in 2013 as a Senior RA, from which time I had a greater involvement with Arrow Student Services. Administrative duties that I took on included creation and maintenance of the U18 student database and attendance record system, preparation of incoming student lists and input of details into database, development of Google Apps Suite, liaison with Arrow Business Division, Education Providers and External Caregivers of U18 students and management of Contacts database.

Management roles included monitoring and supporting the frontline crew, coordinating the RA team and training new RA's, supporting the Student Services Manager and covering duties in their absence and during periods of leadership transition. One of my achievements in this role was the introduction of a dedicated mobile phone for the RA Team, which served functions of contacting U18 student-residents and their caregivers; I also advocated for this phone to serve as an after-hours support line for our student-residents.

In terms of Pastoral duties, these included general interactions with students, assisting at resident events, running Orientation Info Sessions for newly-arrived U18 residents, preparing student notices and writing newsletters and the Resident Handbook, assisting students with schoolwork, and advocacy for a structured system and set of rules pertaining to conflict resolution and mediation for student-residents especially flatmates.

In my capacity as Homebase Administration Coordinator, I often had to liaise with the Hotel Reception when we needed to crosscheck new U18 student arrivals and inspect CCTV recordings of student movements where required by caregivers. I was also involved with the Events Department on a semi-regular basis, including setup of venues and event spaces and providing on-the-ground assistance during major events for external clients.

Homebase Student Services: U18 Resident Awesome Access Welfare & Monitoring Program

The four components that make up the Club Awesome Access U18 Residential Welfare and Monitoring Program at Arrow Apartments include:

🏠 Daily Connect Making sure you get home safe everyday

❤ Open Arms Pastoral care for your emotional needs

📅 Plugged-In Connecting you to happening events

☏ Help Heroes Round the clock Emergency Team at your disposal

Homebase Online Technologies: Google Apps (G Suite) & Web Domain Administration

January 2016:

Purchased my first domain name: www.homebase.id.au
Became a Google Apps (G Suite) Administrator using the abovementioned domain in a professional capacity (including Gmail for Work)

Using the Homebase.id.au Domain Professionally (2016-17)

In January 2016, I bought the domain name homebase.id.au for Arrow Homebase™ Student Services, and subscribed to G Suite (Google Apps) under this domain in order to further develop the technology of the organisation. Apps that we mostly used included Google Drive, Google Sheets and Gmail, which I looked after as the domain administrator. My work email, admin@homebase.id.au, was used for official communications with U18 student-residents as well as external agencies such as education providers and caregivers.

Independence (2017-2019), Creation of Personal Website (2020-2023)

When I left Arrow in 2017, as I was and am the administrator of the domain, I took it with me. From this point forth the domain homebase.id.au ceased to have any involvement with Arrow Student Services. Furthermore, Arrow On Swanston had their accreditation to house U18 international students terminated around this time, owing to some dodgy dealings on the part of their owners and administrators. I have since revamped the domain for my own purposes, and it now serves as my personal website.

From 2023, due to changes in the registration requirements for .id.au domains introduced by auDA, this domain was no longer able to be renewed. Therefore, my personal website has been shifted to lim.homebase.net.au.

Homebase Personal Website Today

Profile: About Me

My name is Yang and I am currently working in local government after a decade at University, mostly in Melbourne, Australia. Originally hailing from Southeast Asia, I have now lived half my life Down Under, having obtained Australian Citizenship six years ago. I hold four degrees from RMIT and Macquarie Universities and I am seeking to further develop my skills in Information Technology, Web Development and Business Analytics.

About this Website

This website was developed using Google Sites and contains information, stories and artefacts on my life. I have completed the sections comprising my CV and University Studies, the latter containing details of my University degrees and links to my University Assignments. More recently I've added pages detailing my professional and personal projects; these sections are being progressively developed over time, and more may be added in the future. I am also hoping in the future to integrate a database for a side business project of mine using a separate website I will create as a vehicle for it.

My Domains

Domains I own include the following:

homebase.net.au
homebaseunion.com.au
homebase.gay
shirtless.skin
jacksonshill.info

Updated: 31 March 2024

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