HOMECARE Management Corporation was incorporated on November 15, 1993, in Lenoir, North Carolina. The doors were open for business two months later in January, 1994. Officers of the corporation were Rankin Whittington, President and Treasurer, and Sandra Whittington, Vice-President and Secretary. Rankin is Chairman of the Board of Directors, Chief Executive Officer, and owns the stock of the corporation.

Rankin grew up on a farm in Amelia, Virginia, near Richmond. There he learned about hard work and the importance of helping others in the community. He majored in English and minored in sociology at Guilford College in Greensboro, where he volunteered as a tutor for developmentally delayed children who lived in public housing. Following graduation and a year of teaching junior high school English in Virginia, in 1970, Rankin moved back to Greensboro to marry Sandy Shansky, a student at Guilford.

Rankin became a social worker for Guilford County. He and Sandy lived rent-free for two years in a friend’s log cabin with only a wood stove for heat. After five years, Rankin left his job to obtain a master’s degree in social work from UNC-Chapel Hill. His first job out of school lasted for twelve years. He was the Director of the Anson County Department of Social Services, while Sandy was the Director of the Anson Developmental Center for Handicapped Children. Rankin’s career of services to people with disabilities began there, when he set up and administered the Community Alternatives Program for Disabled Adults.

The Whittingtons and daughters Molly and Danielle moved to Caldwell County for better schools in 1989. Rankin was the Assistant Director of Social Services and oversaw the change from public to private providers for the Community Alternatives Program. When former county in-home aides complained that their new private employer did not show them respect, it occurred to Rankin that the job could be done better. After much deliberation, he took out his retirement savings and founded HOMECARE Management Corporation.

The first professional employee that cold January in 1994 was Sheila Stevens, formerly the Director of the Program for the Aging in Caldwell County. While Sheila moved on in a couple of years, other early employees are still with HOMECARE. Marla Younce, Finance Officer, and Mary Ellen Moore, Program Supervisor, both began in 1994. Sara Grode Nolan, Division Director, and Kathy Barnes, Financial Assistant, began in 1995. Many in-home aides and behavioral technicians from those earliest months are still with the corporation, including A. C. Curtin and Agnes Osborne.

Success and steady growth came as a result of excellent services from excellent staff. Hundreds more great people have joined HOMECARE over the years, part-time and full-time. Since 1994, the corporation has grown from two employees and no clients to over 500 field staff and 83 administrative and professional staff serving approximately 900 clients in more than thirty counties. There are regional HOMECARE offices in eight towns: Lenoir, Charlotte, Boone, Whiteville, Wilmington, Statesville, Tarboro and Forest City. HOMECARE Management Corporation is truly carrying out its mission . . . to provide the services necessary for people to be as independent as possible in their own homes and communities, rather than having to live in institutions.