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(From A Terrible Kindness by Jo Browning Wroe, Part I, Aberfan, chapter 11)

The pavement fill with black-clad figures oozing from doorways. Keep your head down and your heart hard. That's your kindness. Earlier, gazing into the purple dawn through the widow-screen, William imagined a cup of tea with Betty, hearing about life with her sister-in -law. Now, he tells himself, he mustn't think like that; he should leave these people alone, drawn tight into the folds of their community.

I take "drawn tight into" to mean "integrated tight into", right? However, "drawn tight into" seems to emphasise the mutual bonding in the community.

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    What's being emphasized here is that the locals have "retreated into" their community. They don't really want to interact with "outsiders" - they need to be given their own space, and have their privacy respected while they deal with the psychological implications of the disaster. The outsiders are primarily there to offer practical assistance; this was before State agencies routinely provided "counseling" in such contexts.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Apr 24 at 12:13

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The folds of the community can be a clothing metaphor, so the people are drawing themselves back into their community as one draws one's arms back into a cloak or coat on a cold day.

Alternatively a fold is a pen, as for sheep, and the people are huddling together (figuratively) as sheep do, to comfort each other.

The folds of the community is a formulaic phrase. An outsider can be welcomed into the folds of the community; a prodigal can be welcomed back into the folds of the community. In religious contexts, people are often compared to sheep. Pastors tend their "flocks". Pastor means "shepherd".

William is thinking that his act of kindness would not be to engage them but to allow them withdraw into themselves so they can comfort each other.

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